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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



THE GRE/TT EVIL 

AND ITS REMEDY; 



OK, 



Parental Responsibility in the Moral and Religious 
Training of Children. 




BY REV. SAMUEL W. COPE, 

Of the Missouri Annual Conference of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, South. 



"The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof 
of his mouth for thirst: the young children ask bread, and 
no man breaketh it unto them." (Lam. i\ 




Printed for the Author. 

Publishing House of the M. E Church, South. 

J. D. Barbee, Agent, Nashville, Tenn. 

1889. 




?$ 



tfo fye Memory of My Dear parents, 
JAMES BOYD AND POLLY COPE, 

A Good Man and Woman, Excellent Citizens, Worthy 
Church-members, and Exemplary Christians, 

THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY AND GRATEFULLY 

Dedicated. 



Copyright, 1889, by S. W. Cope. 



A WORD ABOUT OUR LITTLE BOOK. 



It was at the close of our Annual Conference in Septem- 
ber of 1887. I can never forget the time and place. The 
Conference had granted me a superannuated relation on 
account of my physical disabilities. I had stood in the 
itinerant ranks without a break for thirty-eight years. 
Blind in one eye, the vision of the other very dim and un- 
certain, the weight of other infirmities and of more than 
threescore years upon me, a family to support and no visi- 
ble means in sight, the outlook was now any thing else than 
encouraging. 

"Write a book this year," suggested the Rev. S. S. Har- 
din. The suggestion seemed opportune. There came with 
it a new impulse and inspiration. I took fresh courage. 
Hope revived, and I realized a sense of sweet peace and 
rest in God. I have written at intervals of days, some- 
times of weeks together, a page or two as I had the sight 
and strength, often only a few lines at a sitting. I have 
not been able to consult authors, except to a very limited 
extent. Even the Bible quotations have been sought out 
with pain and difficulty. A more perfect vision would have 
given a less number of repetitions and other defects. I 
have done mv best; an angel could do no more. •r*" 8 ****' 

*(8) 



A Word About Our Little Book. 



The object has been to make the treatise eminently 
Scriptural, practical, and useful. There is no pleasure, 
relish, or delight like that of doing good; and there is no 
good equal to that of saving a soul. Our little book is sent 
out as an agent to save souls. It will be specially helpful to 
parents in their own salvation and in the salvation of their 
children. With the desired circulation it will sow boun- 
tifully the good seed of the gospel. In this event, and with 
God's blessing upon the sowing, the harvest truly shall be 
plenteous. Samuel W. Cope. 

Chillicothe, Mo., March 26, 1889. 



INTRODUCTION. 



This little book lias a history. Its author, Rev. Samuel 
W. Cope, is a superannuated member of the Missouri Con- 
ference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. For a 
couple of years he has been almost totally blind, able to 
read only with difficulty and pain. Under such circum- 
stances has the subject-matter so impressed the author that 
the volume grew under his pen. Not content with a sin- 
gle writing, he has rewritten the whole as his last testi- 
mony to the Church on a vital subject. A favorite theme 
when his health permitted him to preach, he avails him- 
self of remaining sight and strength, as he nears three- 
score and ten, to write what he can no longer hope to 
preach. He is unwilling to remain idle, and his desire for 
usefulness overcomes his disabilities. 

His own history illustrates the principles which he 
teaches. The frequent references to his devout parents will 
impress the reader most favorably. Their fidelity made it 
possible for him to serve the Church so long and well, and 
through him they, being dead, yet speak. He has sought 
to enforce the same teachings in his own home. 

The present writer gratefully remembers the author as 
his first pastor, under whose ministry he became a member 
of the Church, and is glad to be permitted to write these 
few lines of introduction to this volume from his pen in 
his old age. 

The teachings of this book are wholesome, and are in 

(5) 



Introduction. 



accord with the Book. Parental fidelity is the safeguard 
alike of the home and the nation. There are laws of the 
moral harvest no less than of the material harvest: 
" Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." A 
gracious and constant providence rewards fidelity in what- 
ever sphere, and nowhere more than in the faithful train- 
ing of children. Especially important here is an abundant 
sowing, for he that soweth sparingly shall reap also spar- 
ingly, but he that soweth abundantly shall reap also abun- 
dantly. The unwelcome work of replanting is frequently 
necessary to a successful harvest in the realm of grace no 
less than in that of nature. Then soil must be thoroughly 
taken with the good seed if we would keep out the tares. 
The suggestions as to how to perform the duties incumbent 
upon parents will be gladly received by all devout readers 
of this volume. E. K. Hendrix. 

Kansas City, Mo., April 2, 1889. 



CONTENTS. 



Part First.— The Great Evil. 

Chapter I. Page 

The Key to Our Subject 11 

Chapter II. 
A Scene of Death by Starvation 15 

Chapter IIL 
The Similitude 22 

Chapter IV. 
The State of the Heathen •. 27 

Chapter V. 
Heathenism at Home 30 

Part Second.— The Remedy. 

Chapter I. 
The Starting-point 49 

Chapter II. 
The Mother the First Teacher . , 58 

Chapter III. 
The Home Altar 68 

Chapter IV. 
The Sunday-school 83 

Chapter V. 
The Living Ministry 94 

Chapter VI. 
The Pressing Inquiry , 110 

en 



8 Contents. 



Part Third.— Miscellaneous. 

Chapter I. p ArK 

The Possibilities to Children 129 

Chapter II. 
Obedience in Children 137 

Chapter III. 
The Sunday Lock and Key 144 

Chapter IV. 
The Apron-string of Mothers 148 

Chapter V. 
On Joining the Church When Young 152 

Chapter VI. 
Moral and Legal Eights 155 

Chapter VII. 
A Pledge to Meet in Heaven 159 



PART FIRST, 



THE GREAT EYIE. 

(9) 



CHAPTER I. 

The Key to Our Subject. 

Jerusalem, the capital of Judea, the once pop- 
ulous and prosperous city of the Jews> now lies in 
ruins. Living converts and numerous proselytes 
crowded the gates of Zion in the days of her pros- 
perity. The Holy One of Israel was in the midst of 
her. The Lord, blessed and honored his Church. 
She was then, as now, the salt of the earth and the 
light of the world. 

Jerusalem, the holy city, once the place and de- 
fense of the temple and of the worship of almighty 
God, is now forsaken by him and abandoned to the 
will and ravages of the enemies of his people. The 
time of her overthrow has come, and "there shall 
not be left here one stone upon another, that shall 
not be thrown down." There is no eye to pity nor 
arm to save. 

Jerusalem, which in the days of David and Solo- 
mon " was the metropolis of the whole Jewish king- 
dom " and the princess of the then surrounding na- 
tions, and from whom she received large tribute, is 
now herself in bondage " to a foreign and heathen 
conqueror." Her glory has departed, and she is 

(ii) 



12 The Great Evil and Its Remedy. 



shorn of her strength and beauty. She sits and 
weeps like a widow, " solitary on the ground, gird- 
ed in sackcloth." She mourns in her sadness and 
deep grief, realizing her helpless and hopeless con- 
dition. She is without support, consolation, or de- 
fense. " How doth the city sit solitary, that was 
full of people! how is she become as a widow! she 
that was great among the nations, and princess 
among the provinces, how is she become tribu- 
tary!" 

Jerusalem, in contrast with the other and the 
surrounding nations, as the fine gold in comparison 
with the other and the baser metals, is thus lament- 
ed by the prophet: "How is the gold become dim! 
how is the most fine gold changed ! the stones of the 
sanctuary are poured out in the top of every street! ' 

The whole land of Judea, once a holy land, is 
now joolluted and overshadowed by dark clouds of 
a portentous character; and the chosen people of 
God, once a holy nation, but now defiled by sin, 
with none to defend or comfort them, are led cap- 
tive, as some suppose en masse, to a strange land, 
even unto Babylon. "Judah is gone into captivity 
because of affliction, and because of great servitude : 
she dwelleth among the heathen, she findeth no 
rest: all her persecutors overtook her between the 
straits." The judgments of God have overtaken a 
disobedient and rebellious nation, and for long, 



The Key to Our Subject. 13 

weary years they are in bondage and servitude to 
their adversaries. Their affliction and consequent 
wretchedness and ruin are beyond the power of 
human language to express. Neither tongue nor 
pen can describe the dreadful calamities which 
have come upon them. God only can fathom their 
sorrow. They have sinned, and behold their sins 
have found them out. " Murder will out," and so 
of all other sins. The rule holds good alike with 
individuals and nations. On this subject we quote 
the language of the Master to his disciples : " For 
there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed ; 
and hid, that shall not be known." The law of 
God cannot be violated with impunity; the inflic- 
tion of the penalty is sure to follow in every case 
of disobedience. " Can a man take fire in his bos- 
om, and his clothes not be burned? Can one go 
upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned?" So he 
that sinneth, whether against God or man, must 
suffer the consequence of his transgressions. There 
is no possibility or way of escape. 

To sin, however secretly, in the belief that no 
harm will come of it, is a delusion and snare of the 
devil. Many are misled and ensnared in this way, 
in the loss of their health, their wealth, their lives, 
and their souls. Beware of sin! Solomon says: 
" Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter : 
Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is 



14 The Great Evil and Its Remedy. 

the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every 
work into judgment, with every secret thing, wheth- 
er it be good, or whether it be evil." It is written, 
again: "As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall 
bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. 
So then every one of us shall give account of him« 
self to God." 

The facts I have given, not to pursue the subject 
further, show something of the nature, workings, 
and consequences of sin, both to individuals and 
nations, here and hereafter. Nations having no ex- 
istence in the hereafter receive the full punishment 
for their sins in this life. 

Sin is a great evil, and in this fact is found the 
key to our subject. I shall have to do in this little 
treatise not so much with the problem of evil as 
such as with the evil itself as I find it in the world. 
Each and every sin is an evil, and for this reason 
all sin should be avoided as a deadly poison. Par- 
ents who neglect the moral and religious training 
of their children are guilty of one of the greatest 
evils of which we have any knowledge. And this 
is the class and manner of evil about which we are 
specially concerned in this writing. 



CHAPTER II, 

A Scene of Death by Starvation. 

Connected with the facts and wonderful events 
recorded in the first chapter is a scene of actual 
death by starvation of multiplied hundreds and 
thousands. Immediately prior to the desolation of 
the Holy Land, the destruction of Jerusalem, and 
the captivity of which I have spoken, a raging 
famine spreads its withering, blighting curses over 
the already doomed city. With this famine there 
came pestilence, and preceding these there was war 
and bloodshed in the land, with great distress and 
trouble. Calamities of almost every shape have 
come upon the city and the surrounding country. 
The famine rages with continued and increased vi- 
olence, until great multitudes are slain as men fall 
on the battle-field. They are seen lying in heaps, 
with no one to pity or bury them. The strong 
men, the helpless women, and the innocent children 
perish together. It is literally true, as expressed 
by the prophet Jeremiah : " The tongue of the 
sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for 
thirst : the young children ask bread, and no man 
breaketh it unto them." Surely a death like this 

(15) 



16 The Great Evil and Its Remedy. 

is more terrible than when it conies in the ordinary 
way. Death under the most favorable circum- 
stances brings with it sorrow and sadness of heart, 
with pain and grief of mind — a grief " which none 
but he who feels it knows." Flowing tears and the 
sympathy of friends bring some relief, but only the 
presence and grace of God can calm the tide of be- 
reavement and keep the head above the billowy 
waves. Much more do we need the promises of 
the gospel and the consolations of religion, standing 
iu the midst of the ravages of death from starva- 
tion. If the members of my family and my neigh- 
bor must die, and I must witness the scene, let it 
not be for the lack of bread, but in the more natural 
and ordinary way — by sickness, casualty, and other 
common and familiar agents less terrible than war, 
pestilence, and famine. And when I am to die 
give me in preference to die at home, surrounded 
by family and sympathizing friends, and the at- 
tending, skillful physician to mitigate my sufferings 
in the dying hour. 

To die of starvation is certainly a grievous death, 
miserable, wretched, calamitous — doubly so when 
helpless women and innocent children are its vic- 
tims. Sad indeed is the sight of a mother languish- 
ing, fainting, dying for the want of food. In this 
condition she cannot nurse and nourish the infant 
at her breast, and it too must die. " The tongue of 



A Scene of Death by Starvation. 17 

the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of its mouth 
for thirst." The father, in a like condition of star- 
vation with the mother, turns a deaf ear to the cry 
of his children for something to eat. " The young 
children ask bread, and no man breaketh it unto 
them." No man — no, not their own father; even 
he fails them in the dying hour. This is a deplor- 
able condition of things, but there is no help for it. 
These parents are not unnatural, not wanting in 
love and good will toward their children, but in the 
ability to save either themselves or their children. 
I have never witnessed a scene of death from 
starvation, and pray God that I may never behold 
such a sight. It seems next to impossible that 
there should ever be a famine in this country, a 
land so fruitful and so vast and varied in its re- 
sources. If any one should prophesy of a coming 
famine in North America, he would be considered 
as beside himself, a fanatic. I am not a prophet, 
and do not prophesy, but I profess to have fears for 
my country, for the prosperity and safety of the na- 
tion. War, famine, and pestilence are the natural 
and inevitable consequences of incorrigible wicked- 
ness in a nation. Many and grievous are the sins 
of this nation. The signs of the times are ominous. 
Threatening dangers are ahead. Men in high 
places and in low places are eager to get rich, cov- 
etous, lovers of money and of pleasure more than 
2 



18 The Great Evil and Its Remedy. 

lovers of God. Again, many are ambitious of place 
and power, not for the glory of God in their own 
good and the good of others. This were well 
enough. But they are self-seekers, securing their 
own personal ends, together with the selfish and 
wicked purposes of their special friends. Often- 
times their traitorous plots work great mischief. 
There are frauds, bribery, and other corruptions in 
political circles, and in State and National affairs. 
The greatest criminals w r e have are in high places 
— men w T ho are in the market to be bought and 
sold, who stand ready to sacrifice morals, religion, 
every thing for gain of wealth, of power, of honor, 
and for perpetuity in office. I am glad to know 
that there are some honorable and worthy excep- 
tions. 

The conflict between capital and labor is a cause 
of great alarm. These, who ought to be fast friends, 
are the worst of enemies. In this conflict we find 
antagonizing elements and despotic forces which 
threaten the security, prosperity, and happiness of 
the whole country. In this state of things there is 
great danger of anarchy in its worst forms. The 
end is not yet. 

There are also others, mostly of foreign birth, 
who evidently desire and are seeking to subvert our 
civil government. Open threats have already been 
made. True they are as yet few in numbers, and 



A Scene of Death by Starvation. 19 

there is no cause of immediate danger. But the 
most dreadful things may be developed from this 
source in the future. I think it right at this time, 
and the least that I can do, to sound the note of 
alarm. With these surroundings, and in the face 
of these facts, some are found who are indifferenr, 
and others will even laugh at such suggestions of 
danger. But while they do so the leaven is at work, 
and the calamities are coming on with all their dire- 
ful consequences. Only God can avert or prevent 
them. 

I mention in this connection the whisky traffic. 
The manufacture, sale, and use of intoxicants as a 
beverage are among the most open and powerful 
enemies of mankind. 

And the next great evil along this line is the use 
of tobacco as a needless self-indulgence. This is a 
crafty, subtle adversary. Considered so generally 
as innocent, it is the more dangerous. These two 
evils are a blighting curse upon our civil and relig- 
ious institutions and liberties. They endanger the 
prosperity and happiness both of individuals and 
the country. They tend alike, each in its own way 
and measure, to poverty and disgrace. The hus- 
band and father who uses whisky and tobacco is 
sure in the end to bring a famine of bread to his 
wife and children. This, at least, is the legitimate 
result of his wicked habits. In this country to-day, 



20 The Great Evil and Its Remedy. 

and for these reasons, thousands of families would 
actually die of starvation but for the timely and 
benevolent help they receive from others. Their 
kindred, their neighbors, and the Church bring to 
them the necessary supplies. Unless the whisky 
rule is broken, and the present prevalent use of to- 
bacco abandoned, there shall come increased and 
terrible sufferings in the land. I am not a fanatic 
on these questions, but I do say that whisky and 
tobacco are subversive of natural and moral rights, 
of civil and religious liberty. When whisky shall 
have been abolished from the nation, then shall the 
eyes of the people be opened to see what a great 
curse tobacco is, in its direful consequences not 
only to those who use it, but to their children's 
children. Tobacco as an evil will be hard to over- 
come, and as an enemy difficult to conquer. It has 
already great numbers and great wealth, and is 
strongly fortified by self-indulgence, the plea of in- 
nocence, and the popular sentiment of the people. 
The war with tobacco is likely to be as long and as 
fierce as the present conflict with the whisky traffic. 
But victory will turn on the side of right in the 
end. 

Another ground of fear is the desecration of the 
holy Sabbath, commonly called Sunday. To say 
that we are a nation of Sabbath-breakers is not put- 
ting the question in too strong a light. It is sim- 



A -Scene of Death by Starvation. 21 

ply the statement of a fact that it is not wise in us 
to ignore or to esteem lightly, To break the Sab- 
hath habitually and of set purpose is a crime of enor- 
mous guilt, whether this be done by individuals or 
by corporations. There is lio greater crime, not 
even excepting that of murder. There is no law 
of God more sacred or more binding than the law 
of the Sabbath. To violate this law, consequently, 
is the greatest offense against God; and no sin is 
more certain to call down the judgments of God 
upon a people. It is prolific of all manner of evil. 
A very large percentage of criminals of all classes 
come to prison and to death, directly or indirectly, 
from Sabbath-breaking. 

This is a dark but not an overwrought picture, 
and constitutes the chief ground of our fears. In 
these surroundings is found just cause for alarm. 
There is no help but in God; the arm of man is 
too short and weak to bring deliverance. But 
while this is true, let no one mistake as to his or 
her duty, God has ordained to work through hu- 
man agents. In no other way can his purposes be 
accomplished in the earth. Parents may do much 
in the interest of their children. Any good man 
or woman may be helpful in God's work. To work 
for God is a Christian duty. 



CHAPTER III. 

The Similitude. 

The scene of death from starvation at Jerusa- 
lem, as given in the preceding chapter, strikingly 
illustrates the moral and religious condition of 
many parents and children in the world, even 
within the bounds of Christendom. It is for this 
purpose that I have given it. These multitudes 
languish, faint, and die for lack of the bread of life. 

If the bare recital of physical suffering and 
death produces in us great pain of mind and grief 
of heart, much more should we be moved by a 
scene of moral and religious destitution and suffer- 
ing which destroys souls in greater numbers, and 
by a more grievous death. 

Look upon the one scene, and then upon the 
other. If the first awakens all the sympathies 
of the human heart, much more should the latter 
arouse the moral sensibilities and spiritual sympa- 
thies of the soul. It is surprising how many of 
our race are morally dead ; how few who know the 
living and true God. Ignorance of God is found 
in all lands, and among all kindreds and tongues 
of people. 
(22) 



The Similitude. 23 



To be convinced of this you have only to lift up 
your eyes and look abroad upon the face of the 
moral and religious world around you. Look near 
by, and then look far away ; and both at home and 
abroad you will behold the most painful destitu- 
tion and moral degradation and suffering. Mill- 
ions of our race are living and dying in the midst 
of the darkness, superstitions, and wretchedness of 
paganism. As we contemplate their moral and re- 
ligious condition we are again constrained to say: 
" The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the 
roof of his mouth for thirst: the young children 
ask bread, and no man breaketh it unto them." 
Behold the scene, and let the sight of your eyes af- 
fect your heart. Contemplate the facts, and be 
moved by them. How deplorable the condition of 
a hungry, starving soul ! There are hundreds and 
thousands of such who die annually; and where 
this state of things is found in Christian lands their 
condition is the more to be deplored. How much 
better off are many in this country than the poor 
heathen for whom we profess so much sympathy, 
and yet for whose enlightenment and salvation we 
do comparatively so little? I answer: Not a whit! 
Some of the most morally destitute and incorrigi- 
ble sinners of this country are found living under 
the very shadow of our churches. Not that the 
Bible is false, religion untrue, or the gospel a fail- 



24 The Great Evil and Its Remedy. 



lire. No, not that; for these are gloriously and 
immutably true— the grandest of all realities, Hu- 
man enterprises and efforts may fail, and often do; 
but the enterprises and work of God never fail. 
These go forward to a sure and successful comple- 
tion. The offer and possibility of salvation are 
made to every man. Where men are found un- 
saved the fault is in them, and not because of any 
defect or inefficiency in the gospel. The willful re- 
jection of offered mercy is the only reason that any 
sinner should remain unsaved. And besides this, 
let it be remembered that we owe to the Bible and 
gospel our Christian civilization, our national peace, 
safety, and prosperity, and whatever else that tends 
to human happiness and to the elevation of man- 
kind. But despising and rejecting the word and 
gospel of God, as many do, they are left in moral 
blindness, ignorance, and superstition. The grace 
of God is largely lost upon them in their personal, 
social, and national relations and interests. The 
children suffer with their parents in vice, degrada- 
tion, and moral ruin. Loosed from their proper 
moorings, they drift away into the drinking-saloon, 
pleasure-dance, skating-rink, theater, opera, circus, 
gambling-dens, and into other and nameless places 
of prostitution, where all manner of lewdness and 
sinful indulgences are practiced. These are so 
many places and methods of the devil's own choos- 



The Similitude. 25 

ing to lead men, women, and children down to 
death and hell! In this way hundreds and thou- 
sands are annually ensnared and destroyed. Young 
men and maidens are more inclined and exposed 
to many of these vices than others who are older 
and more settled in character and life. Conse- 
quently they need stronger restraints, and to be 
more strictly guarded than others. It is unfortu- 
nate for the children when parental love, authori- 
ty, and fidelity are found on the Wrong side of these 
questions. No one is safe outside of the fortifica- 
tions of divine wisdom, love, and power. Without 
the mercy and grace of God all is lost. These are 
the only safeguards to the rising generation. Many 
parents seem slow to learn these facts, and still 
slower to act upon them. Again I ask: What is 
the difference between heathenism in this country 
and in foreign lands? The similitude is apparent 
even to the casual observer. There are places, par- 
ties, and associations in this Christian land of ours 
(and I have mentioned some of them) where the 
grossest idolatry exists. No greater abominations 
are committed among the heathen abroad. Here 
God is blasphemed, Jesus Christ is despised and set 
at naught, and the Christian religion spurned as a 
delusion. Many, even in early life, become so for- 
tified in sin as to be impervious to the truths of the 
gospel, unmoved alike by the Spirit of God and 



26 The Great Evil and Its Remedy. 

the entreaties of men. They seem greedy of their 
own destruction, and rejoice in the downfall of oth- 
ers. They make it their business to destroy good 
wherever it is found. Solomon says, " One sinner 
destroyeth much good ; " but it is when sinners unite 
that they exert their greatest power for evil. This 
state of idolatry in Christian lands serves to show 
the power of sin, and that some persons will do 
wickedly in spite of God and all that is good. 

Man is free to choose between holiness and sin, 
good and evil, right and wrong, light and darkness, 
life and death, heaven and hell; and according to 
his choice so shall it be unto him. Those who do 
not know and worship the true God are heathen, 
no matter in what country they live. In a Chris- 
tian country they are such of choice. Man as a 
moral agent determines his own character, life, and 
destiny. Parents choose for their children while 
they are minors. That they may choose wisely in 
all things, they need the wisdom and grace of God. 
Thus assisted they shall not fail. 



CHAPTER IV. 

The State of the Heathen. 
I have already noted some facts upon this sub- 
ject, but would seek further information, some ad- 
ditional light, and knowledge. If the reader please, 
we will now take a tour of observation through 
foreign countries, that we may learn by personal 
contact with them the true state of the heathen. 
We will go first to Japan, thence to China, In- 
dia, Burmah, and Hindoostan, in Asia. From 
Asia we will pass through Europe on our way to 
Africa, visiting specially the interior and western 
portions of the Dark Continent. Next we will visit 
the principal islands of the sea, and from the South 
Sea islands we will go to South America. From 
thence we will return to our Christian hemes in 
our own native land. In this tour we shall find 
multiplied millions of human beings who have 
never heard the name of Jesus, and who are with- 
out the Bible, the gospel, and a knowledge of the 
true God. They are pagan worshipers, wretched 
though earnest devotees, who bow down to and 
worship stocks and stones, the workmanship of 
their own hands. Thev deify reptiles, fishes of the 

(27) 



28 The Great Evil and Its Itemed 



sea, and birds of the air. They pa}* adoration to 
the sun, the moon, and the stars, Nearly every 
living creature, and many inanimate things, real 
and imaginary, are deified and worshiped by these 
idolatrous kindreds, tongues, and people. Pagans 
are known throughout the world by the multiplic- 
ity of their gods. They are numbered by hun- 
dreds of millions, if not by tecs of hundreds of 
millions. The state of the heathen is pitiable in- 
deed. Just think of it! There are multiplied 
millions of our race who reverence and glorify 
these false deities, which can neither see nor hear 
nor handle nor deliver. Daily do they call upon 
them, but call in vain, Nor is this all. Con- 
nected with this idolatrous worship in heathen 
lands is almost every species of vice, of licentious- 
ness, of intemperance, of revelry, and of debauch. 
Here untold flood-gates are lifted up or thrown 
wide open, and horrid abominations and inhuman 
cruelties and crimes, reaching even unto blood- 
shed, are like so many torrents sweeping over the 
land. These leave in their wake devastation, des- 
olation, degradation, wretchedness, and ruin. This 
truly sad and mournful condition of the heathen 
world is enough to break a heart of stone, and 
to melt all eyes to tears. He who can behold a 
scene like this unmoved is surely past feeling, and 
without natural affection and human sympathy. 



The State of the Heathen. 29 

And he who can restrain prayer, and tie his purse- 
string against such a call for help is certainly des- 
titute of Christian sympathy and without the con- 
straining love of Christ in his heart moving him 
toward the suffering and the lost. Such persons, it 
would seem, ought to live, for a time at least, in the 
midst of pagan superstition and idolatry. The sur- 
roundings of such a state, with its wretchedness and 
suffering, might possibly bring them to reflection, 
and to a proper understanding and faithful dis- 
charge of duty. Some persons are slow to learn 
the lesson of God's wisdom and goodness, as taught 
in the gospel and recorded in his written word. 
But our God is merciful, long-suffering, and kind. 
"He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor re- 
warded us according to our iniquities." For one 
I am glad to have been born and reared in a land 
of Bibles and of gospel privileges and benefits — a 
land of religious liberties and a Christian civiliza- 
tion, which come to all the people as benedictions 
of God's mercy and grace. Ours truly is a Chris- 
tian country: 

The land of the free and the home of the brave. 
We may well boast of our civil and religious in- 
stitutions and of the wealth and glory of the na- 
tion, only our boasting should be in the Lord. The 
great peace and prosperity of the Church is also 
cause of thanksgiving to our heavenly Father. 



CHAPTER V. 

Heathenism at Home. 

The state of the heathen in foreign countries 
was the subject of our last chapter. In this chap- 
ter the benighted condition of the heathen at home 
shall claim our attention. Notwithstanding the 
Bible is so generally circulated, and the gospel so 
extensively preached in this country, there is still 
in many places great moral destitution. Paul said 
of some in his day: "But evil men and seducers 
shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being 
deceived." A like state of things still exists. Any 
one who will open his eyes to the facts about him 
will be convinced of the truth of this statement. 
Reader, come and go with me, and we will first 

visit 

The Temple of Fashion. 

Here we shall gather some interesting and impor- 
tant facts. The temple itself is magnificent, beau- 
tifully adorned within and without. In the esti- 
mation of the world the goddess presiding here is 
a most lovely being, and the altar is of the greatest 
attraction and beauty. The place is thronged 
with sincere and ardent worshipers. Their su- 
(30) 



Heathenism at Home. 31 

preme affections are given to this goddess, and 
their time, talents, wealth, and opportunities are 
all consecrated on this altar. Many of them- will 
not even share with God in these things. We look 
and wonder at their devotion and fidelity to a false 
god. Some of them are willing martyrs to their 
principles and sinful practices, glorying in their 
faith and dying in defense of their cause. 

Stephen, the first Christian martyr, bears testi- 
mony in his death to the truth of the gospel. It is 
not strange that he should die for the name of 
Jesus. There is a cause that justifies and commends 
this act on his part. In no other way could he 
have entered into eternal life. But it is strange 
that men and women of intelligence, of rational 
understanding will sacrifice their lives to idols. 
Many do so under a delusion, not knowing what 
they do. They are blinded by sin, and led cap- 
tive by Satan at his will. Others, I am persuaded, 
sin knowingly and recklessly, not caring for the 
consequences. The devotees of fashion act openly, 
and are seemingly proud of their folly. It is their 
glory to be seen of men. They love the praise of 
men more than the praise of God. No Christian 
is more devoted to the worship of the living and 
true God than they are to the frivolities of fashion. 
Many are found who worship a pretty face, a form, 
it may be, with symmetry of parts, and a dress 



32 The Great Evil and Its Remedy. 

beautifully, tastefully, and fashionably made. They 
put on "gold, and pearls, and costly array." These 
are their gods. Their highest ambition is to be 
conformed to this world. They take a supreme 
delight in its maxims, customs, and pleasures. 
The costumes for the ball-room and other places 
of worldly entertainments "must be in the latest 
styles of fashion, and all that pride, and wealth, 
and sinful indulgence may demand. The cost of 
time and money are nothing. Health, and even 
life itself, as we have stated, are cheerfully sacri- 
ficed at this shpine. Yes, and morality, religion, 
and the hope of heaven are ignored and set aside. 
These are considered as not worthy to be compared 
with self-gratification in worldly and sinful associ- 
ations and pleasures. "Society! society!" They 
desire nothing more, and will be content with 
nothing less. Just now this form of idolatry is 
making itself very manifest, working the destruc- 
tion of the body and the death of the soul on a 
large scale. This is true not only in the great 
cities, but in the towns and in the rural districts 
as well. The love, power, dominion, and evil con- 
sequences of fashionable society are simply amaz- 
ing. They are terrible to behold. The infant 
child and the little children are endangered there- 
by. Unless the brakes are speedily put on there 
is but little hope in many circles. Christian par- 



Heathenism at Home. 33 

ents should take the alarm and stand in defense of 
their children. They may also reach out the hand 
and be instrumental in saving the children of eth- 
ers. Ministers of the gospel should cry aloud and 
spare not. 

The Apostle John says: "Love not the world, 
neither the things that are in the world. If any 
man love the world, the love of the Father is not 
in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of 
the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of 
life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And 
the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but 
he that doeth the will of God abideth forever." 
In the language of the Apostle Paul: " I beseech 
you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, 
that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, 
acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable 
service. And be not conformed to this world : but 
be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, 
that ye may prove what is that good, and accept- 
able, and perfect will of God." 

But for the present we will turn away from this 
abomination. It is ensnaring and delusive in the 
extreme. Such folly is hateful to God and hurtful 
to man. Let us now 7 proceed on our journey. Not 
far distant is another place of idolatrous worship, 
and it too is crowded with devotees. We will visit 
that next. 
3 



34 The Great Evil and Its Remedy. 

The Temple of Wealth. 
This temple is beautiful, grand, magnificent, and 
of the largest proportions. Science, art, and human 
skill combine to make it attractive — a place of ease, 
of pleasure, and of worldly gains. Here we find a 
strongly-fortified shrine and a golden altar. The 
god of wealth, a being of great authority aud 
power, sits upon the throne. We see men and 
women in great crowds, on their way to this tem- 
ple, and all of them are in eager haste to get rich. 
Stopping now and then to rest, they wipe the per- 
spiration from their heated brows. On reaching the 
consecrated place of their devotions they delight to 
do honor to their god. At this golden shrine they 
statedly bow and worship, pouring out the sincere 
and warmest affections of their hearts. They lin- 
ger at the altar in adoring reverence and gratitude. 
When their god smiles upon them in prosperity we 
see them leap and hear them shout for joy. They 
will be rich, even at the risk of being " drowned in 
destruction and perdition." They are in pursuit of 
the almighty dollar, and will not be turned aside 
from their purpose. They love the world supremely, 
and are diligent in laying up treasures upon earth. 
They have no concern for their souls here or here- 
after. " God is not in all their thoughts." The 
Bible may be a good book, or it may be an old fa- 
ble; it is all the same to them. They seldom, if 



Heathenism at Home. 35 

ever, read it, and never as the rule of their faith 
and practice. The gospel to them is the least and 
last of all things. If they hear it at all, it is only 
at the mouth of a popular speaker, some learned 
and eloquent divine; and then, only to be enter- 
tained, and not to be made wise unto salvation. 
This is a false idea of the gospelj and is a great 
hinderance to its success, especially when enter- 
tained by those who profess to believe and obey its 
precepts. Christian men and women, and some- 
times Churches, as such, make complaint that their 
preacher is not a man of popular speech. Speech 
is the gift of God, and eloquent language and the 
great power of learning and oratory should not be 
undervalued. These have their place, their power, 
and their uses; but let the gospel be heard for its 
own sake, and as an instrument of personal salva- 
tion. Paul says: "For I am not ashamed of the 
gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto 
salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew 
first, and also to the Greek." When a bishop or 
other great man fills the pulpit let the people 
crowd to hear, but let them not despise the gospel 
when preached by others of less note and ability. 
It is the same gospel by whomsoever preached ; 
and it is the gospel that should interest us, rather 
than the manner of its proclamation. 

Wealth in its proper place is a good thing — the 



36 The Great Evil and Its JRemechj. 

more the better — but when sought and obtained as 
an object of supreme good, supplanting the Bible 
and perverting the grace of God in the salvation of 
men, it becomes an evil, idolatrous and soul-de- 
stroying. It is a pitiable object to see a man with 
the world on his back, not able to look up to heaven, 
the source from whence cometh all our good. 
" Every good gift and every perfect gift is from 
above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, 
with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of 
turning." "Wealth gotten by righteousness, and 
wisely used, is honoring to God and a blessing to 
mankind. It is so much treasure laid up in heaven. 
These are they who use the world as not abusing it. 
But to gain wealth by fraud, by overreaching, by 
oppressing the poor, the widow, the orphan, and 
the hireling in his wages, is a very different thing. 
It is still worse when gotten by lying, stealing, vio- 
lence, and bloodshed. All such gains are dishon- 
oring to man, as they are displeasing to God. 
Pooner or later the guilty parties will be overtaken 
by the greatest condemnation and punishment — if 
not in this life, certainly in the world which is to 
come. 

But all these evils are being practiced in almost 
every place to a greater or less extent. The holy 
precepts of the gospel and the Bible rule of faith 
and practice are set at naught. The instituted 



Heathenism at Home. 37 

and prudential means of grace are counted as noth- 
ing. The personal piety and godly example of 
Christian men and women are treated with indif- 
ference, sometimes with derision. All appeals and 
efforts to secure their personal salvation are stoutly 
resisted. They seem insensible to the loving hearts 
and anxious concern of their best friends. In 
spite of all these mercies of God, interposed for 
their salvation, they still strive to be rich. Their 
eye and faith are resting upon the kingdoms of this 
world and the glory of them. They are under a 
delusion, but know it not. 

Such are the beguiling nature of sin and its great 
power over the human mind and heart. There is 
no greater loss than that of the soul. " For what 
is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, 
and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in 
exchange for his soul ? " Earthly treasures are un- 
satisfying, and perish in their using; but the heav- 
enly inheritance abideth forever. It is " incorrupti- 
ble, and undefiled, and fadeth not away." It is our 
wisdom to choose this better part. 

As Joshua said to the idolaters of his day so I 
say to the devotees of fashion and of wealth : " Now 
therefore put away the strange gods which are 
among you, and incline your heart unto the Lord 
God of Israel." 

We will next visit 



38 The Great Evil and Its Remedy. 

The Temple of Honor and Human Glory. 
This is the grandest and most costly of all the 
idolatrous temples found within the bounds of 
Christendom. It is beautiful for situation, and of 
great antiquity. The presiding deity is hoary with 
age, and of great pomp and magnificence. Men 
have bowed to the scepter of his authority and 
power in every age of the world. Counting from 
the beginning down to the present time, hundreds 
of thousands have worshiped him, and still they 
come to do homage at his feet. The numbers, per- 
haps, are not so great as those who crowd the tem- 
ple of fashion and that of wealth, but they are not 
less ardent, sincere, and true in their worship. For 
the most part they are partisan, strong, ambitious 
men, seeking place and power. They seek the suf- 
frages of the people in their elevation to offices of 
trust, of wealth, and of honor — not the honor that 
comes from God, but of men, worldly honor. This 
is the coveted boon they seek. Nor do the} 7 care 
for consequences; their only concern is to reach the 
end desired, whether that be by fair or foul means. 
Like those who will be rich, and those who conform 
to fashion at whatever cost, these will have glory 
and renown as objects of supreme good. It seems 
incredible that intelligent men should seek after 
such things, puerile and short-lived as they are, 
and utterly failing as they do in all their promises 



Heathenism at Home. 39 

of satisfaction and happiness. But that many office- 
seekers are of this class I presume no one will 
deny. Their natural and acquired abilities, their 
time and talents, their energies and means, are all 
used in this direction. They press their friends 
and every possible agency into service, and are 
careful that no opportunity shall be lost. They 
will have the honor of men, of place and power, or 
die in the struggle for it. 

They seem to have no concern for the greater 
honor of being a child of God and an heir to eter- 
nal life. However honored or dishonored of men, 
the true Christian finds his supreme happiness in 
God. His highest ambition and greatest delight 
are in the fear and service of God, in the associa- 
tions and fellowship of his saints, and in the joy of 
the Holy Ghost, and in the hope of heaven. 

Human honor is proper and right in its place, 
and where the rights of God and man are respected 
it may be innocently sought and enjoyed. The 
evil is not in office nor in holding office; these are 
of God, a necessity and a benediction. Without 
these there could be no civil government, and con- 
sequently no security of either life or property. 
Only true men and good citizens, those who are ca- 
pable and trustworthy, should be put into office. 
Men of this class will administer the affairs of civil 
government in righteousness, showing all good fidel- 



40 The Great Evil and Its Remedy. 

ity to God and man. Such officers are the true 
servants of the country and of the Government 
-which they so justly, wisely, and honorably repre- 
sent. They are also, and for the same reasons, the 
servants of the Most High God, doing his will in 
the earth. These righteous rulers are not in any 
sense to be numbered with idolaters. 

But there are men who for the sake of office and 
its emoluments will sacrifice principle, justice, 
equity, and every sacred right of God and man. 
They take pleasure in the god of honor and human 
glory, and him only will they serve. The claims 
of the true God are set aside and his judgments de- 
spised. Eevealed religion is treated as a delusion, 
and future rewards and punishments as a myth. 

I give an instance in illustration not of the im- 
agination, but one taken from real life. He was a 
man amongst men— one of the greatest statesmen 
Missouri ever produced. He was in early life a 
Christian, a class-leader, and a Sunday-school su- 
perintendent and teacher. He ran well in the 
Christian race until the beginning of his political 
career. From this time he gradually lost his inter- 
est in the Church and in religious matters, and 
finally his official positions and membership. So 
the last state with him, as it has been with many 
others, was worse than the first. 

His ambition and abilities as a statesman devel- 



Heathenism at Home. 41 

oped rapidly, and soon he appears in the political 
heavens as a star of the first magnitude. The ad- 
miration and praise of men are lavished upon hirm 
Behold the man ! a Senator in the Congress of the 
United States. There he stands in his place, a man 
of commanding appearance and of most excellent 
and wonderful endowments. In learning, in elo- 
quence, and in human greatness and glory he is a 
tower of strength. We look again, but O how 
changed the scene ! This once good and great man 
has fallen. As a statesman he is dead and buried, 
without the hope of a resurrection. The corruptions 
in politics, the appetite for strong drink, and his as- 
sociations with godless, w T icked men w r ere among 
the agents which accomplished his ruin. Changing 
the figure, we w r ill allow another to speak of him, 
and this is what he says: "He shot up into the 
political heaven like a meteor, the wonder of the 
nation, dazzling for a time the public gaze, and 
then suddenly w T ent out in darkness." No wonder 
that a man should fall who forsakes God, the 
Church, religion, and his hope of heaven, giving 
himself up to the ways of sin and death. Destroy 
the foundations of Christianity, and remove the re- 
straints of morality and religion, and men fall an 
easy prey to the world, the flesh, and the devil. 
Even men of the greatest intellectual powers and 
force of character are swept away by the flood-tide 



42 The Greed Evil and Its Remedy. 

of iniquity. Strong men, men of might, are broken 
to pieces like a potter's vessel. There is no security 
to any man except in the wisdom and grace of God. 
The instance we have cited is not an isolated one; 
history furnishes many others, and very similar 
cases in all the States, and throughout the world in 
all the ages past. 

Men ambitious of renown climb step by step, 
higher and higher, until they reach the topmost 
pinnacle of fame. Here they would inscribe their 
names in golden letters, in imperishable characters, 
that they might live forever in the thought, the ad- 
miration, and the praise of men. Their chief glory 
is to be extolled by the present and held in ever- 
lasting remembrance by the generations to come. 
This is their happiness and their god. 

Fame, immortal fame! "For this they thirst, 
they faint, they die.' , Alas! their affections are be- 
guiled in the wrong direction, and their life-service 
given to a false god that ought to be given to the 
God of heaven. The desire for fame is right in it- 
self, but can only be gratified in God. To seek 
the renown of a good name, one that shall never 
die, is a Christian virtue. The desire of immor- 
tality is common to man; it inheres in our being. 
God has implanted it there, and he has provided 
for its gratification. Nothing short of exaltation 
to the throne of God itself can satisfy the longings 



Heathenism at Home. 43 

of man's immortality, and of this the faithful 
Christian is assured by the promise of Christ : " To 
him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in 
my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set 
down with my Father in his throne." It is thus 
that man is made a partaker of " the eternal glory 
and universal reign of God." Through redeeming 
grace and dying love he is exalted to divine honors 
and to an imperishable renown. I confess to an 
ambition that my name shall be written not on the 
pinacles of fame, but in the Book of Life. My gra- 
cious heavenly Father granting me this, I am sat- 
isfied. 

Imaginary Temples and Altars. 

But we need not go to the thousand and one im- 
aginary temples and altars where the phantoms and 
delusions of the day and the creatures purely of the 
imagination are deified and worshiped. The vices 
and superstitions of these places are too numerous 
and shameful to be mentioned. The reader's own 
knowledge and observations must supply our lack 
of service at this point. Happy are they who 
know nothing by personal contact and experience 
of these places, vices, and superstitions; perver- 
sive as they are of all that is good, and of all true 
happiness in this life, and for the life that is to 
come. 

But this is not all. Connected with the idol- 



44 The Great Evil and Its Remedy. 

atrous worship, as found within the bounds of 
Christendom, as in heathen lands, is every species 
of vice, of licentiousness, of intemperance, of revelry, 
and of debauch. Here, as there, the flood-gates of 
sin and iniquity are thrown open, and all manner 
of abominations and wickedness, like so many tor- 
rents, sweep over the land. These crimes of inhu- 
man cruelties and bloodshed, of pain and anguish, 
of poverty and distress, of wretchedness and ruin, 
of suffering and death, all come of forsaking God 
and the ways of righteousness and true holiness. 
They are the legitimate consequences of idolatry, 
mercilessly destroying, as we have represented, like 
the overflow of great waters. Or, to change the 
figure, these agents and forces often come like so 
many cyclones of destruction. Sometimes they ap- 
pear suddenly where there is the least suspicion of 
danger, and with such violence that there is no es- 
cape except through the immediate mercy and grace 
of God. He "is our refuge and strength, a very 
present help in trouble." " But the transgressors 
shall be destroyed together: the end of the wicked 
shall be cut off." 

The greatest moral and religious destitution and 
suffering in this country are found in our larger 
towns and cities. Among the sufferers are a large 
number of innocent and helpless children. In the 
city of New York alone is a standing army of ten 



Heathenism at Home. 45 

thousand children who can neither read nor write, 
and who never go to Sunday-school or to Church. 
So stated a !Sew York correspondent of the St. Louis 
Christian Advocate, some years ago, These children 
— and a like class to be found in all our cities — are 
as benighted and wretched as the heathen of foreign 
countries. Many of them are ignorant and de- 
graded to the lowest degree. In the rural districts 
throughout the country we also find many who are 
under the power and dominion of the works of the 
flesh. They are without God and hope in the 
world. Morally and religiously they are in great 
destitution, languishing, fainting, dying. Once 
again we quote the language of the prophet : " The 
tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof 
of his mouth for thirst: the young children ask 
bread, and no man breaketh it unto them." Why 
not? where are the parents? and why do they not 
come to the rescue of their children? Alas! they 
too are in a like condition of starvation. That is 
to say, dropping the figure, the parents are ungodly 
and wicked, and are alike indifferent to their own 
salvation and that of their children. That father 
and mother who are leading a life of sin and diso- 
bedience to God can have no proper concern for 
the religious well-being of their children. Whether 
the children are saved or lost, it is all the same to 
them. Certainly this is practically true, however 



46 The Great Evil and Its Remedy. 

they may think and feel upon the subject. It is a 
sad state of things when parents lead their own 
children away from God and heaven and all that 
is good. There is no more pitiable sight than a 
godless family going together down to death and 
hell. It is enough to move an angel to tears. But 
there are great multitudes of such heathen in our 
own country; and it is difficult, in places next to 
impossible, for the Church to reach them. They 
are so sunken in crime, in guilt, and shame, that no 
ordinary means can reach them. Many of them 
will not hear or believe or obey the gospel; con- 
sequently they die in their sins. They perish for 
lack of the bread and water of life. This is a fear- 
ful death. The loss of the soul is terrible. There 
is nothing to equal it. Of all evils, real and imag- 
inary, this is the greatest. 



PART SECOND 



THE. REMEDY. 

"Train up a child in the way he should go : and when 
he is old, he will not depart from it." (Prov. xxii. 6.) 

"And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath : 
but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the 
Lord." (Eph. vi. 4.) 

(47) 



CHAPTER I. 

The Starting-point. 

In any enterprise much depends on the right 
commencement. Where, when, and how to begin 
are vital questions to success. 

In the first part of this work I directed the read- 
er's attention to a great evil — namely, the state of 
moral destitution and spiritual death of hundreds 
and thousands of our race, even within the bounds 
of Christendom. And the evil is to be doubly de- 
plored because so many little children and young 
persons, male and female, are numbered among the 
unfortunate victims. Many of them are intelligent 
and promising, but perish for the lack of that knowl- 
edge and wisdom w : hich come from God alone. 
Their associations and surroundings lead them away 
from God and from the paths of virtue and up- 
rightness. Their delight is in the disobedience of 
the law of God. The ways of sin and iniquity are 
to them ways of pleasantness. They even revel in 
the vices and follies which are most degrading and 
shameful. They seem to hurry along and down 
the broad road whose terminus is in eternal death. 
Greedy of destruction, despising the admonitions of 
' 4 (49) 



oO The Great Evil and Its Remedy. 

the wise, and rejecting the truth, they seal their own 
perdition. 

Parents who live in sin aud who go down to death 
and hell take their children with them. This at 
least is the tendency, the legitimate result of such 
a course. Where it is otherwise it is a miracle of 
grace. Through ungodliness and the wicked lives 
of parents Satan destroys annually thousands of 
their own and the dear children of others. And 
many others, following their pernicious ways, are 
lost to the Church, to the cause of God and human- 
ity, and in the end perish everlastingly. 

Is there a remedy? What ought to be, what can, 
what must be done? Is there no hope? Shall our 
children go en masse to the devil, as did the Jews 
into Eabylonish captivity? No, thank God! there 
is a remedy. Hope is not gone forever. The true 
God still lives and reigns, and he is wiser and 
greater than the gods of the heathen. And he is 
our God, our Trust and Hope. We will look unto 
him, and will not be afraid. lie it is who leadeth 
us "in the paths of righteousness for his name's 
sake." He wi'.l bless the generations to come of 
those who now fear and call upon his name. This 
gives a double motive to personal and parental 
piety. It shows the importance and the responsi- 
bilities of household religion. Christian parents 
who arc blameless before God in love have the as- 



The Starting-point. 51 

surance that their children's children shall be found 
walking in their godly footsteps, and not in the way 
of the transgressor. This is the Bible rule, and I 
am not at liberty to make any exceptions to it. The 
seeming exceptions which now and then appear 
may be accounted for by some defect in the train- 
ing. The children jvho are rightly taught cf God 
by his appointed agents — the parents — are in a 
state of moral and religious safety. They walk 
in the way of God's holy commandments, in that 
strait and narrow way which leadeth to eternal life. 
"Brought up in the nurture and admonition of 
the Lord/' or, as expressed by -Solomon, "trained 
up in the way they should go, when they are old 
they will not depart from it." The skeptic may 
shake his head doubtfully, and unbelief may make 
"the promise of God of none effect; " but this, is 
what God says, and I believe God. "Have faith 
in God." 

The starting-point in this work of training and 
of security to the children is with the parents. They 
are the responsible party. To keep our illustration 
in view: The infant children must have milk, and 
the young children bread. But parents who are 
themselves in a condition of starvation cannot sup- 
ply the wants of their children. They can furnish 
them no nourishment whatever. They are power- 
less to protect and relieve the innocent, helpless 



52 TJie Great Evil and Its Remedy. 

sufferers. This is simply a matter of fact which no 
one ever doubted or can doubt. And so irrelig- 
ious parents, ungodly in heart as well as sinful in 
life, cannot teach their children the fear and serv- 
ice of God. How can they teach that of which 
they have no knowledge? And how can they im- 
part to others that which they have not? They 
are themselves without the sincere milk of the word, 
the bread of life, and the strong meat of the gos- 
pel. How then can they furnish spiritual food and 
nourishment to their hungry, starving children? 
They cannot do so, because they have it not. The 
children may cry long and piteously in their desti- 
tution and suffering, but without help from the par- 
ents; for just so long as they live in sin just so 
long is it impossible for them to meet the wants of 
the soul in their children. For this reason, if for 
no other, parents ought to be religious, publicly 
confessing Christ and serving God " with a perfect 
heart and willing mind." A negative and merely 
nominal Christianity is not enough. All parents 
should be real Christians, positive, active, and obe- 
dient even unto death. It should be made manifest 
that they love God with a perfect heart, and that 
they are blameless in character and life. While 
diligent in business, let them be " fervent in spirit, 
serving the Lord." The character and life should 
correspond with the profession. Then, and not un- 



The Starting-point. 53 

til then, are parents prepared to teach their chil- 
dren the way of life and salvation. 

This Is the Starting-point. 
Often all is lost for the want of a right start, a 
good beginning. Let parents see to it that they 
begin right in the matter of training and bring- 
ing up their children in "the nurture and admoui- 
tion of the Lord." If they will lead the way to 
the cross, and thence to heaven, the children will 
follow. There is nothing doubtful or difficult at 
this point. The love and service which we render 
to God should of course be from principle and as 
a matter of right and duty, and because it is to 
the glory of God and to our present and eternal 
happiness. But for parents to be in the Church 
and in the service of God, for the sake of their chil- 
dren, is certainly not an impure or unworthy mo- 
tive. It is simply and only an additional reason 
why they should conform in heart and life to the 
Divine requirements. Indeed it seems passing 
strange to me that parents believing the Bible 
should endanger both their own salvation and that 
of their children by continuing in sin. With my 
views upon the subject, I would be a Christian sole- 
ly for the sake of my children. Yes, I would come 
to Jesus and cling to the cross even unto death, if 
that should be necessary to lead my children to 
salvation, and finally "to glory, honor, immortality, 



54 The Great Evil and Its Remedy. 

and eternal life." If for any reason my personal 
salvation was to me a matter of indifference, if in 
the event of my death I did not care whether I was 
saved or lost, I should nevertheless be concerned 
for my children that they perish not. There can 
be no excuse for neglect of duty at this point. 

I appeal to ungodly parents, and would urge 
them, if need be, by the love of God, by the death, 
resurrection, and intercession of Christ, and by the 
agency and power of the Holy Ghost ; by the word, 
the gospel, and the Church of God; and lastly by 
parental responsibility and the love they bear to 
their children, to become religious, ceasing to do 
evil and learning to do well. This is a matter of 
too much importance to be treated with indifference 
or neglect. The motives to right and prompt ac- 
tion are numerous and weighty, and we would lay 
them on the heart and conscience of every parent 
who may read these pages. 

Where so much is involved even religious par- 
ents need to have their pure minds stirred up by 
M-ay of remembrance, and their hearts and lives 
quickened to renewed and greater energy and ac- 
tivity in the great work that God has enjoined upon 
them, in restraining their children from sin and 
evil of every kind, and leading them into the way 
of holiness unto eternal life. This question of pa- 
rental godliness and responsibility can hardly be 



7w? Starting-point. 55 



unduly stressed. An error or failure at this jx>int 
would prove a loss, possibly a disaster, to both par- 
ents and children. 

It is a great work to save one's own children 
from the perdition of the ungodly, and to secure to 
them " an inheritance among those who are sancti- 
fied." The promptings of human love and the con- 
straining love of Christ combined make this a most 
delightful work. It is the purpose of God by these 
high and weighty motives to fence in the children, 
that the wicked one touch them not. 

Children are a token of God's love to the parents, 
a heritage from the Lord. We say oar children, 
and so they are by the ties of nature, but in a pre- 
eminent sense they belong to God. The chief bus- 
iness, even of little children, is to love, serve, and 
please their heavenly Father. This should be the 
work and service of their whole lives. They should 
never be the servants of sin, that they " should obey 
it in the lusts thereof." Let them be taught that 
love and obedience to their parents is a service ren- 
dered to God, that what they do in any thing should 
be done with reference to God's glory. To this end 
God holds parents responsible; they are in the 
stead of God to their children. It is well, there- 
fore, that parents should study and understand 
the nature and importance of the relations which 
they sustain to God and their children, and the 



56 The Great Evil and Its Remedy. 

obligations and duties growing out of these rela- 
tions. 

Parents simply hold their children in trust to do 
the will of God. The consecration of children to 
God in infant baptism is a formal and scriptural 
acknowledgment on the part of the parents of this 
sacred trust. It involves an oath or religious vow 
that they will fulfill by God's help the trust com- 
mitted to them. Some parents hesitate to take upon 
themselves these vows, for fear of failure in the 
right performance of the same. But they cannot 
dodge the issue in this way, for the duty is upon 
them whether they will acknowledge it or not. It 
is no small matter to a father and mother to have 
and to hold in trust for God's service and glory 
their own dear children. This trust binds them to 
keep the children within the limits of God's re- 
vealed will. Beyond this they may not go. In 
other words, parents are to teach their children " to 
renounce the world, the flesh, and the devil, so that 
they may not follow or be led by them ; to believe 
all the articles of the Christian faith, and to obe- 
diently keep God's holy will and commandments all 
the days of their lives." The Bible is the only 
and sufficient rule both to parents and their chil- 
dren. Nor is this law and these duties a new order 
of things, " for they have been ever of old." " Hear, 
O Israel : The Lord our God is one Lord : and thou 



The Starting-point. 57 

shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, 
and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. 
And these words, which I command thee this day, 
shall be in thine heart: and thou shalt teach them 
diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them 
when thou sitteth in thine house, and when thou 
walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and 
when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them 
for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as 
frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write 
them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy 
gates." This is a beautiful as it is a striking picture 
of household religion, involving parental love and 
duty. The presence of God makes the paradise of 
such a family. A religious household is one of the 
purest and best types we have of heaven. It is the 
Church of God on earth. The Church, I know, has 
other outward forms, but this comes nearest to the 
divine pattern. Nothing is more sacred than the 
Christian home, and nothing should be more strict- 
ly guarded. It is the foundation and embodiment 
of all that is good amongst men in this world. 
Amen. 



CHAPTER II. 

The Mother the First Teacher. 

The mother has to do with the child from its 
birth. She has the care of all its wants — physical, 
intellectual, moral, and religious. During the pe- 
riod of its helpless infancy and young life her will 
is supreme, the only rule of faith and practice the 
child has; and it needs no other. The youngest 
infant and the one with the weakest intellect soon 
learns to confide in its mother. It looks to her for 
comfort, protection, and happiness. In her pres- 
ence and caresses of love there is fullness of joy. 
The child is satisfied with nothing less, and desires 
nothino- more. This confidence should never be 
betrayed, weakened, or perverted by the mother. 
The rather let every look and word and act of her 
life go to increase and strengthen the faith of the 
child. Self-will and disobedience in children must 
never be allowed. Much less should these be per- 
mitted to grow into a principle and habit of life. 
The mother's wishes should be their only will. The 
law of her mouth must be obeyed, only she should 
be careful to rule in the Lord. The principles of 
faith and obedience should be firmly established in 
(58) 



The Mother the First Teacher. 59 

the mind and heart and in the character and life 
of infancy and childhood. In this case they will 
abide forever. This work, involving the most vital 
interests, is largely the responsibility of mothers. 
Let them see to it that the work is done accord- 
ing to the pattern given them in the word of God. 
It will then be comparatively an easy matter to 
further mature and develop these principles in later 
childhood and in early youth. The work is far 
easier and better done in these earlier stages of life 
than at a later period. The longer the work is 
delayed the greater the difficulty and the less sat- 
isfactory the results. It is the weakness of some 
mothers to please their children at whatever cost. 
Right or wrong, the child must be gratified. A 
mother, for instance, pays two dollars and fifty cents 
for a hymn-book. The little child covets and cries 
for it as a plaything. The mother for a time holds 
to the principles of right and duty in the case, but 
finally yields to the wishes of the child, and in 
less than an hour after the purchase the book is so 
soiled and mutilated as to be comparatively worth- 
less. This would seem incredible, only that such 
conduct is so common with a certain class of moth- 
ers. This is one principal cause of perverseness in 
children. As the mother's authority is weakened, 
in that ratio the children become cross, fretful, 
peevish, and stubborn. The mother wonders why 



60 The Great Evil and Its Remedy. 

she has such bad children, not even suspecting that 
she is the cause of their waywardness and disobe- 
dience. A mother's opportunities are always equal 
to her responsibilities, so that she is left without ex- 
cuse if her children are froward in infancy and dis- 
obedient in childhood and youth. And as first im- 
pressions are the most lasting, and the mother most 
responsible for them, she should be very careful of 
her own character and life. She should be sound 
in doctrine and wholesome in all her teaching. 
Children as a rule are very much like their moth- 
ers for good or evil. Let the pattern which is giv- 
en to them be worthy of their imitation. Molding 
the character and shaping the lives and destiny of 
children is the honored and great work of mothers. 
Let them not turn aside to the rostrum or to the 
pulpit. God has assigned to them a different sphere 
of action, and a work not less important in its nat- 
ure and results. 

Instance the mother of John and Charles Wes- 
ley. This is the type of woman to make the world 
better. Home is the proper sphere of woman, and 
here she should be ambitious to excel. No doubt 
Mrs. Wesley could have wrought a good work if she 
had gone into the pulpit, but not as great a work as 
she accomplished through her sons by staying at 
home. The women of all lands, and of all time to 
come, may learn an important lesson from this ex- 



The Mother the First Teacher. 61 

ample. In all this we say nothing against the wom- 
an's missionary work, nor the present work of wom- 
en in the cause of temperance. The former seems 
to be of God, the latter a necessity, because in the 
past other and better methods have been neglected. 
If in the years gone by the temperance work in 
this country had been generally and well done, 
there could have been to-day no need for special 
efforts in this direction. If our mothers had done 
their duty in the home, the Woman's Christian Tem- 
perance Union had never existed, as no reasons 
would have been found for such an organization. 

Here is a man who is now over sixty years of age, 
who never drank any kind of intoxicants in all his 
life, and who was never for any reason in a drink- 
ing-saloon. Why? Not that he was naturally bet- 
ter than other boys, or less enticed or endangered 
in his general surroundings. It was the home in- 
fluence which saved him. He owes all under God 
to his pious parents. Other parents might do as 
much for their children. In this case there would 
be no necessity for legal prohibition ; the temper- 
ance fight would soon be over. This is the prohi- 
bition most needed. These facts establish, the doc- 
trine of parental responsibility, and show where 
and when and how the work of educating and train- 
ing should bo done. Many parents, however, are 
skeptical on this subject, full of doubts and unbe- 



62 Tlie Great Evil and Its Remedy. 

lief, and especially as to child-religion. They seem 
to think that children are not capable of knowing 
and doing the will of God. Grown persons have 
the right, and it is their duty to be religious; but 
they deny such right and duty to childhood and early 
youth. The denial is more real and pronounced in 
practice than it is in theory. But the faith of par- 
ents and others is often stoutly against the children. 
Religion, which should be first, is the last thing of 
importance with many. In advance of divine 
knowledge children are taught their letters, how to 
spell, read, and write, and something of grammar, 
arithmetic, and other branches of science. This is 
wrong and damaging every way. It is a reversal 
of God's order of things. The first thing a child 
should learn is something about God, heaven, and 
hell. And what is easier learned or more impor- 
tant to children than the name and love of God, 
the name and love of Jesus, the name and beauties 
of heaven, the name and terrors of hell? Such 
knowledge ; ay be imparted to them in a measure, 
even in advance of their knowing the alphabet. 

An error or mistake, or any neglect or delay of 
duty at this point, may be seriously hurtful. All 
the parties involved must surfer the consequences to 
a greater or less extent: the parents, the children, 
the Church, the community, and the generations to 
come. Children, to the extent of their abilities and 



The Mother the First Teacher. 63 

opportunities, can as intelligently and scripturally 
love and serve God as the parents themselves, or 
the wisest philosopher on earth, or an angel of the 
highest rank and order in heaven. "Thy Avill be 
done in earth, as it is in heaven," And shall the 
parents do the will of God, and their children walk 
by another rule? And if so, why? Parents and 
children are alike the subjects of moral government, 
and are equally and together bound to do the will 
of God. An illustration here is to the point. 

A pious mother during the day teaches her little 
daughter, Ollie Dines, only a few years old, some- 
thing of the being and perfections of God ; that God 
is holy, wise, and good ; that his throne is in heaven, 
but that he looks down to soe the children of men, 
blessing those who trust in him; and that she must 
be a good child, and never displease the heavenly 
Father. In the evening of the same day the mother 
and child are standing at the door, just at the time 
the stars make their first appearance. Looking up 
and fixing her eyes on them, and remembering the 
lesson her mother had taught her iu the morning, 
the child said : " Ma, I see the little holes in the sky, 
where God peeps through to see me." This was a 
simple and child-like expression, and possibly at 
the time brought a smile to the face of the mother. 
But how full of meaning are these words, when we 
stop to think upon them ! Here we have the child'^ 



64 The Great Evil and Its Remedy. 

idea of God's omniscience — very imperfect, it is true, 
of what God realty is and of his method of seeing, 
but serving the same purpose to the child that the 
more perfect knowledge does to the mother. The 
mother knows that there is a God and that the Om- 
niscient Eye is upon her. The little child knows 
that much. This knowledge on the part of the 
mother restrains her from evil and encourages her 
to do the things which are pleasing to God. As 
much may be affirmed of the child, although its 
knowledge is so limited and imperfect as compared 
with that of the mother or the Christian philoso- 
pher. The law requiring parents to know, love, and 
serve God is equally binding upon their children. 
Let them ever keep this fact in remembrance. In 
keeping the commandments of God there is great 
reward to parents. The same is true of their chil- 
dren when in their measure they walk by the 
same rule and mind the same things. This is 
preferable to the consequences of ignorance and sin, 
and parents are responsible for the choice and con- 
duct of their children. And we insist upon it that 
home is the place, and infancy and childhood the 
time, to secure the salvation of children; bringing 
them into the Church, and directing them in the 
way of heaven. To delay this work is dangerous, 
and to attempt it without divine guidance is to fail. 
God's time and methods must be observed, and his 



The Mother the First Teacher. 65 

blessing sought. Our heavenly Father leading us, 
we cannot go astray. His grace imparted, and the 
Holy Spirit helping our infirmities, there can be no 
such thing as failure. 

The child who thought the stars were little holes 
in the heavens through which God looked down to 
behold the children of men has grown to woman- 
hood, and is now herself a mother; and right dil- 
igently is she teaching her children as she was 
taught. The same Bible and catechism her mother 
used are her text-books. She would have the prat- 
tling little ones about her knes and in her lap to 
know, love, and serve the same God to whom she 
gave her affections and service w 7 hen but a child. 
In this way God is glorified in the salvation of 
souls, and his knowledge and fear perpetuated in 
the earth from generation to generation. Thus the 
good work goes on, and I can, yea, and I will rejoice. 
Bless the Lord ! " and let all the people say, Amen." 
Among the first recollections of my pious but 
now sainted mother are those connected with the 
moral and religious instructions which from day 
to day she so diligently and patiently imparted 
to her children. One thing deserves special men- 
tion : It was her regular custom to take the children 
to a private place of devotion, and there to pray 
with and for them, and talk to them about God and 
heaven, and the duty and importance of being 
5 



66 The Great Evil and Its Remedy. 

good aud doing good. She bad much to say about 
how God loves and blesses little children in this 
world, and how at last he gives them a home in 
heaven. These divinely - revealed and glorious 
truths were held up as so many worthy motives to 
right action. The lessons taught and the impres- 
sions made under the circumstances can never be 
forgotten. They endure forever. 

The good accomplished in this way is the most 
desirable, durable, and important, as it is the larg- 
est in magnitude and the most wonderful in its re- 
sults. I have passed the sixty-fourth anniversary 
of my birthday, and now that I am old and gray- 
headed I still feel the soft, tender hand of my an- 
gel mother on my head ; and there it shall remain 
forever, a joy to God, a delight to the angels, and 
a well of life to me. Satan rages as I write these 
things, disappointed of his prey. But salvation is 
mine, and my glorified mother holds a jubilee in 
heaven. Mine is not an isolated case; there are 
thousands, if not millions, of such instances in the 
world. I give this paragraph, just clipped from 
the Nashville Christian Advocate : 

Praying with Children. 

The loving instruction of a mother may seem to have 

been thrown away, but it will appear after many days. 

"When T was a little child," said a good old man, "my 

mother used to bid me kneel down beside her, and place 



The Mother the First Teacher. 67 

her hand upon my head while she prayed. Ere I was old 
enough to know her worth she died, and I was left too 
much to my own guidance. Like others, I was inclined to 
evil passions, but often felt myself checked and, as it were, 
drawn back by a soft hand upon my head. When a young 
man I traveled in foreign lands, and was exposed to many 
temptations; but when I would have yielded that same 
hand was upon my head, and I was saved. I seemed to 
feel its pressure as in the happy days of infancy ; and some- 
times there came with it a voice in my heart, a voice that 
was obeyed: 'O do not this wickedness, my son, nor sin 
against God.' " — Anonymous. 

The prayers of a pious mother, her counsels and 
godly life, never fail to bear good fruit. Showers 
of blessings descend to her children's children. 
These are facts, not fiction, and I put them to rec- 
ord in this place for the encouragement of the faith 
and to strengthen the purposes and efforts of all 
parents, and especially those who are young and 
inexperienced, but solicitous to do their whole duty. 
Let all such parents have willing help from every 
possible source. In infancy and early childhood 
the father can do but little, but later on his author- 
ity and work are a necessity. Without his co-op- 
eration the mother's work may be greatly hindered, 
possibly given up in despair. Let parents be doub- 
ly watchful and diligent at this point, lest Satan 
should get the advantage of them, and hinder, if 
not destroy, their work. 



CHAPTER III. 

The Home Altar. 

I shall not argue the right nor yet the duty of 
family religion. This much will be conceded by 
all. The husband or head of the family is respon- 
sible for this service. He is the prophet, priest, 
and king of his own house. He is so ordained of 
God, who will hold him to a strict account in the 
faithful performance of his duty. The children 
look to him for the knowledge of the true God and 
of the way of life and salvation. The Bible is his 
principal text-book. Out of this book he is to teach 
the doctrines and fundamental principles of our 
holy Christianity— the precepts, promises, exhorta- 
tions, and warnings of the gospel. This teaching at 
first is of course rudimental and limited, but not 
the less important on that account. Great care 
should be taken not to impart any false or incor- 
rect ideas, but only the truth as it is revealed in 
Jesus. The instructions of Paul to Timothy are 
equally applicable and important to a patriarch or 
head of a family : " Study to show thyself approved 
unto God, a workman that needeth not to be 
ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." With 
(68) 



The Home Altar. 69 

the divine authority to teach comes the paternal 
right to govern, and as much depends on good 
discipline in the family as upon correct teaching. 
Like a bishop in the Church of God, the father 
and priest in the family should be blameless, " one 
that ruleth well his own house, having his children 
in subjection with all gravity." 

As the minister of the gospel is held to an ac- 
count for the welfare of the Church and congrega- 
tion he serves, so the head of a family is responsible 
for his household. As a priest he conducts the sa- 
cred service, bringing oblations of prayer and praise 
to God. 

What Paul said of the duty and necessity of 
preaching the gospel may be truly affirmed of fam- 
ily prayers: " For though I pray morning and night 
in my family, I have nothing to glory of: for ne- 
cessity is laid upon me ; yea, woe is unto me, if I 
pray not in my family." There can be found no 
purer or better place this side of heaven than a re- 
ligious household. Here we find the sweetest and 
most delightful fellowship, the perfection of moral 
excellences and of the Christian virtues — first in 
the tender bud, then in the opening flower, and aft- 
erward in the abundant harvest of ripened fruit. 
The daily worship of a religious family is most 
pleasing to God, as we know it is delightful and 
profitable to the sincere worshipers. Holy angels, 



70 The Great Evil and Its Remedy. 

if permitted to be present and participate in such 
service, would no doubt feel honored, and they 
would be the recipients of gracious benefits. How 
much more those for whom this service was spe- 
cially ordained of God, and is so well adapted to 
secure the promised good in the desired results! 

Regular hours should be established for this serv- 
ice, just as there must be in the necessity of the case 
appointed times for the social and public worship 
in the sanctuary. Many family altars have fallen 
down by violation of this rule. This should be a 
warning to others. We think the best time is in 
connection with the regular meals, just before or 
after eating. At these hours the children and oth- 
ers are generally near by. If these times are not 
convenient, establish other hours, that the whole 
family may understand and govern themselves ac- 
cordingly. In no case should the time be left an 
open question ; and let every thing be subordinated 
to this holy and God-honored service. All the fam- 
ily, as far as practicable, should be present — par- 
ents, children, servants, visitors, and " the stranger 
that is within thy gates." By this means a sojourn- 
er only for a night may be brought to Christ. If 
such a one is already a Christian, he will be 
strengthened in his faith and made to abound in 
the knowledge and love of God and to go on his 
way rejoicing in a brighter hope of heaven. Many 



The Home Altar. 71 



such instances are on record to encourage fidelity in 
family religion. Remember that what has been 
may be again ; what others have done we may do. 
The work and reward of saving the soul of a stran- 
ger — or any soul, for that matter — involves high 
and worthy motives to Christian integrity and up- 
rightness of conduct. Let there be corresponding 
desires and efforts, that no opportunities be lost. 

It is advisable to select and study the Scripture 
lesson in advance. This will tend to secure a cor- 
rect reading and interpretation. It is not enough 
that the Bible should be read in the family; the 
sense should be given. This cannot be done in full, 
as in a sermon from the pulpit, but only with com- 
prehensive brevity. As we gather at the sanctuary, 
so we come around the family altar to be taught of 
God out of his holy word. The preacher in the 
pulpit and the patriarch in the household, each in 
his place, is the representative of God, to make 
known his will to those committed to their care. Let 
their interpretation of the Scriptures be to edifica- 
tion and salvation. In this way the children of 
Christian parents, like Timothy, may from child- 
hood " know the holy Scriptures, which are able to 
make them wise unto salvation through faith which 
is in Christ Jesus." 

The lessons, songs, and prayers, as a rule, should 
be short and always appropriate. Ordinarily a les- 



72 The Great Evil and Its Remedy. 

son of ten to twenty verses is sufficiently long. It 
is a weariness to the flesh and without profit to hear 
a loug lesson read at every service. 

I knew a brother at one time, a good man and a 
true Christian, whose family devotions were lengthy 
and tiresome. He would often light on the long- 
est chapters in the Bible, and such as had the great- 
est number of hard words and names difficult of 
pronunciation. He was a slow and poor reader at 
best, and so the service, while to God's glory, was 
less inviting and profitable than it would have been 
under more favorable conditions. But the broth- 
er's integrity was firm unto the end ; while he had 
a house God had an altar. And allow me to say 
this by way of application : Christian duty, how- 
ever imperfectly performed, must never be omitted. 
In doing our best we are accepted of God. An an- 
gel could do nothing more. Thousands of families 
are without the home altar. Why? The want of 
ability is the plea. This is a delusion of the devil. 
Make the effort, and God will give the ability. 

Singing is a vital part of family religion, and 
should seldom, if ever, be neglected. Let singing- 
be the rule, and not to sing the exception. There 
is a benefit without the singing, but a larger bene- 
fit with it. The hymns should be short, and the 
singing lively and spiritual, and rendered not as an 
artistic performance, but as a service to God. There 



The Home Altar. 



is an inspiration and pleasing melody in the serv- 
ice of song, and a quickening power which nothing 
else can give. The work of family religion is al- 
ways seriously hindered where there is no singing. 
In a large measure, if I mistake not, the want and 
decay of piety in religious households may be attrib- 
uted to this source. It is better to pray without 
singing than not to pray at all, but it is always bet- 
ter to sing when we pray, whether in the family or 
in the social and public worship. The good brother 
was not far wrong who said : " I will permit no one 
to conduct family worship in my house who omits 
the singing." 

There was a time within the recollection of the 
writer when it was as common to sing at family 
worship as to read a lesson from the Bible. All 
were expected to bear a part in the service of song 
— parents and children, old and young. I remem- 
ber distinctly how embarrassed I was wdien a child, 
in taking up and bearing my cross in this line of 
duty. Now the order of things is changed, and the 
religious services of the family are for the most part 
conducted without singing. Those who stop to 
think and reason upon the subject see that this is a 
great mistake; it is marvelous in their eyes. .The 
individual Christian, the family, and the Church, 
have sustained great loss at this point. This is be- 
yond any doubt one of the devices of Satan to de- 



The Great Evil and Its Remedy. 



stroy much good, lessening the attractions, the pow- 
er, and the saving benefits of home religion. Sing- 
ing in the family is quite as necessary and impor- 
tant as it is in " the house of the Lord." It would 
be ruinous to do away with the singing in the social 
and public services of the sanctuary, as everybody 
knows; and it cannot be less injurious to omit the 
singing in family worship. All the altars of God — 
public, social, and private — should be vocal with 
songs, " with hymns of love and praise." It is 
scarcely possible to say too much in favor of the 
service of song. It is attractive, delightful, inspir- 
ing, soul-reviving, and soul-saving. Surely this 
subject ought to be stressed at this time. Singing 
is an indispensable part of the family oblations. To 
omit it is to mar the beauty and lessen the good ef- 
fects of the whole service. We all need and can ill 
afford to lose the personal benefits of this part of 
family religion. Where there is a cold, backslid- 
den state of things the song-service will give energy, 
activity, courage, and new life and hope. It distills 
like the early dew and the gentle shower, and it is as 
refreshing "as cold water to a thirsty soul." Holy 
songs — the songs of Zion — have a wonderful power 
to strengthen the faith, enlarge the hope, and to 
make perfect in love the sincere and true worshiper. 
It is a potent and necessary means to our growth 
in grace. For these reasons we believe the Holy 



The Home Altar. 75 



Spirit is grieved in the so general neglect of sing- 
ing at the family altar; but in this fact Satan and 
all the powers of darkness are made to rejoice. The 
omission of singing in the family accounts in a 
large measure for the defective singing in the con- 
gregation. If the families of the Church generally 
were accustomed to singing at home, it would give 
a new interest and inspiration to the service of song 
in the sanctuary. Many never sing at Church be- 
cause they never or seldom ever sing at home; and 
when they do it is not as well done, for the want of 
home training and practice. I mention another 
specific reason in favor of the service of song — one 
which reaches beyond the river and connects with 
the life to come. The more and better we sing on 
earth the better prepared we will be to sing in heav- 
en. This being true, the neglect of singing in the 
family will be an eternal loss. Let it be remembered 
that an opportunity once lost is never regained, and 
that the benefits of such opportunity, consequently, 
are gone forever. I might enlarge upon the sub- 
ject, but forbear. The interests connected with it 
are manifold, far-reaching, and of incalculable im- 
portance. Their value can never be told. Let all 
those involved in neglect of duty break off their 
sins by righteousness; and let the faithful few still 
keep their white robes unspotted. To the Chris- 
tian this is a good world, and it is the better for the 



76 The Great Evil and Its Remedy. 

holy songs of the home altar. We will sing and make 
melody to God in our hearts and in our homes and 
in the courts of the Lord's house. "Praise ye the 
Lord." 

As a rule long prayers should be discouraged, 
and especially repeating the same prayer every time, 
word for word. We give an illustration : A little 
boy is visiting a school-mate in a Christian family 
for the first time. At family prayer the two boys 
kneel side by side. The prayer is long, and the 
home boy is soon asleep. The visiting boy, after a 
long waiting, gives him a nudge and whispers: 
" How much longer is your father going to pray? " 
In reply the boy asks : " Has he come to the Jews 
yet?" "Yes, he has just made mention of the 
Jews." " Then he is only half through the prayer." 
And the boy went, to sleep again. Why should he 
keep awake? Long as the prayer is, he knows it 
by heart. Only a few, it may be, go to this ex- 
treme, but many lean too far in this direction. 
Such prayers mar the beauty and detract very 
much from the excellences and real worth of fam- 
ily religion. The ends or objects of the prayer are 
measurably lost in its sameness and great length. 
There is a vast and wonderful variety in our daily 
wants and surroundings, and this should give vari- 
ety to our prayers. We should pray for just what 
we desire and need at the time, and this will give 



The Home Altar. 77 



us day by day a new prayer, with a different word- 
ing from the old. If any are unwilling to pray ex- 
temporaneously, let them use the prayer-book. Us- 
ing prayers made to hand is better than not to pray 
at all. Nothing is better or more appropriate than 
the Lord's Prayer, and this any head of a family 
may soon learn to repeat. To do the best we can 
is all that God requires; but to do nothing — not 
even to attempt to pray in the family, as is the case 
with many — is a great wrong. God will not hold 
them guiltless. Offenders must suffer the penalty 
of the violated laws. The head of every family 
should lay these things to heart. Well-selected 
lessons, lively and spiritual songs, with short and 
appropriate prayers, will make family worship a 
joy and delight, a pleasure and a benefit, both to 
the parents and their children. 

I remember with great satisfaction that I had a 
father who prayed daily in his family, morning 
and evening, and whose Christian character and 
life corresponded with his profession. The omis- 
sion of family prayer at my father's house would 
have been a greater surprise to the children than 
to have gone without the daily meal. The quar- 
terly fast was regularly observed, when two of the 
three daily meals were left out. Family prayer 
was never omitted. So I may say that there was 
more praying than eating in my father's house 



78 The Great Evil and Its Remedy. 

■when I was a boy. At times it is a benefit not to 
eat, but always a loss not to pray. Fidelity in erect- 
ing and maintaining a family altar is a duty and 
an honor to any father, and his children will rise 
up and call him blessed; and in return they are 
an honor to their father, their family, the Church, 
and the community. Yea, truly, such children 
are a blessing to the whole nation and to posterity 
after them. Say what you will, it is from this 
source that our best citizens and Church-members 
come, and the best of all classes of men and women 
in all the relations and employments of life. It is 
by this method that parents have good and obe- 
dient children and a desirable and lovely home. 
Children will appreciate the love and respect the 
authority of consistently pious parents. Parents 
should be very careful at every point in the moral 
and religious training of their children. Any neg- 
lect of duty or defect in their work may lead to 
very serious consequences. The parents who are 
not watchful and prayerful, and who are left at 
any time without the Divine guidance, are sure to 
fail. The word and methods of God never fail. 
The seeming or real failure at any time is not in 
God, but in man. 

I mention one other thing of great importance. 
The children should be orderly and well-behaved 
at family, prayers. Their conduct in this respect 



The Home Altar. 79 



depends entirely on the careful guidance and man- 
agement of the parents. If trained aright, and at 
the right time, there will be no trouble. I give 
one of the simplest methods, the easiest and the 
best of which I have any knowledge — one that I 
know from experience and observation to work 
well. Begin with the first-born. Require not 
only the presence of the child, but have it bear 
some part at each service. Begin this work of 
training early. Put the yoke of the Master on the 
little prattling child in a practical way. This may 
be done as soon as the child is able to walk and 
play in and about the house. If not yoked for 
Christ then, it will likely go into the service and 
bondage of sin and Satan. The children, no less 
certainly than the parents, will serve one or the 
other of these masters. But which? The par- 
ents shall determine in any given case. But I 
imagine that some one will ask in surprise- " What 
can a little child do in the service of the Master ? 
and what good can it derive therefrom?" Unbe- 
lief will answer that it can do nothing, and re- 
ceive no personal benefit. And so under this 
double delusion the little child is not called to the 
family devotions. It is sent off in the hands of the 
nurse, or cared for by one of the older children; 
or, what is worse, when permitted to remain it is 
allowed to have its own way unrestrained, to the 



80 The Greed Evil and Its Remedy. 

great annoyance of every one present. But the 
little child can do something. Let us see. The 
mother is arranging for the service. The child 
can remove a stool or place a chair. It can bring 
the Bible and hymn-book and place them on the 
stand; or, what is better, place them in the hands 
of the father. Let this order be observed, and 
then the child, quietly seated by the mother, be re- 
quired to remain there until the close of the service. 
A few weeks of such daily and faithful training, 
and the work is done. This good behavior in the 
child will soon become a fixed habit. The child 
knows now what is required of it. And as a rule 
children properly trained give their parents but 
little trouble. On the other hand, parents are 
generally to blame for the improprieties of their 
children. By observing this rule, training the 
children one by one, the most numerous family 
will be quiet and orderly, each keeping his place 
and bearing his part in the devotions. Even the 
domestic animals will come to understand, so that 
they will give no trouble or occasion of complaint. 
I agree with the evangelist, Sam P. Jones, that 
cats and dogs are a practical test of personal and 
family piety. He says that where prayers are of- 
fered in a family not accustomed to religious devo- 
tions the cats and dogs are surprised and alarmed, 
and the door being closed they will jump out at 



The Home Altar. 81 



the window to make good their escape. These 
things are not jokes, but of actual occurrence now 
and then. And worse than this, the children are 
sometimes as much alarmed as the domestic ani- 
mals. I have known children so affrighted at re- 
ligious worship conducted in the family by the 
visiting pastor as to cry out and leave the house as 
if it were on fire and they were in danger of being 
consumed in the flames. At one time, late in his 
life, when the venerable Andrew Monroe was pray- 
ing in a certain family, one of the children coming 
in from school was greatly surprised at the scene, 
and running to her mother, she cried out: "Mam- 
ma, get up! what are you all doing down here on 
your knees?" This was the child of an eminent 
statesman, and her mother was a pious Christian 
woman ; but the family, as such, did not worship 
God. There was no home altar. This was the 
only trouble. Such children are to be pitied in 
proportion to the blame attaching to their parents. 
And there are a large number of such families even 
among those who have nominal connection with the 
Church. 

I here and now record my heart-felt thanks to 
God for Christian parents and the benefits of 
family religion from a child all my life. Let the 
family altar be perpetuated in all time to come. 
From generation to generation let the fires burn 
6 



82 The Great Evil and Its Remedy. 

thereon. The religion of the home represents and 
aggregates the piety of the Church. The altars of 
the Church are fed and kept up very largely by 
the home altar. Break this down, and experi- 
mental and practical godliness would soon cease 
from the land, and the whole superstructure of 
our Christian civilization would crumble and fall 
into ruins. May the God of all grace multiply 
the number, and bless all the Christian homes of 
our country, and let every pious soul labor to this 
end! 



CHAPTER IV. 

The Sunday-school. 

The Sunday-school is an important factor in the 
moral and religious training of children. Its prin- 
cipal work is to impart and perpetuate Bible knowl- 
edge, the most important of all knowledge. This 
gives the Sunday-school the pre-eminence over the 
day-school. Our children go to the latter; much 
more important is it that they should attend the 
former. 

" To give children a good education in manners, 
arts, and science is important; to give them a re- 
ligious education is indispensable; and an immense 
responsibility rests on parents and guardians who 
neglect these duties." 

The Sunday-school work fits in nicely with the 
home instruction and training; and it does so the 
more certainly and efficiently if the parents accom- 
pany their children to and are one with them in 
the school. The necessity is alike upon parents 
and children to be in regular attendance unless 
providentially hindered. Parents should not say, 
" Go," but, " Come, children, and let us go to the Sun- 
dav-school." I desire to honor my parents for their 

■ (83) 



84 The Great Evil and Its Remedy. 

fidelity in this work. It was a matter of principle 
and duty with them not only to attend the school, 
but to bear an active and full part in its labors and 
expenses. They led the way, and the children fol- 
lowed, and we were all there and on time. For all 
this I am surely a wiser and better man, a more 
devoted and useful Christian, and a more efficient 
and successful minister of the gospel. This record 
is not given in eulogy of my honored parents, but 
as a noble example "provoking others to love and 
good works." A summer Sunday-school is no doubt 
better than no school, on the principle that half a 
loaf is better than no bread; but a permanent or- 
ganization, an evergreen school, is every way more 
desirable and fruitful of good. 

What would you think of a Church hibernating, 
suspending the regular services during the winter 
months? As many and just as good reasons might 
be offered in justification of such action as for sus- 
pending the work of the Sunday-school four or five 
months in the year. To do so in either case would 
be unwise and hurtful. The Churches that have 
tried the experiment of suspending their Sunday- 
schools for the winter have found it unsafe and un- 
satisfactory. The practice, so common in many of 
the rural districts, is without justification. I am 
aware that it is claimed by some that the winter 
season is not suited toSundav-school work; that the 



The Sunday-school. S-1 

weather as a rule is too cold and rigorous, and the 
children consequently too much exposed. This is 
simply and only an excuse; it has no foundation 
either in reason or fact. Many of these same chil- 
dren go regularly to the day-school. Why not to the 
Sunday-school? Query; Is the weather worse on 
Sunday than on other days of the week? Are life 
and health more endangered by exposure on the 
Sabbath-day than on a week-day? Let me give 
you a secret: The material expense is the principal 
difficulty in maintaining a Sunday-school in the 
winter. It requires more money to rim the school 
in the winter than in the summer, It is also more 
difficult to procure regular teachers, to keep things 
in order, and to make those comfortable who at- 
tend. 

I undertake to affirm as a fact; If the State 
would furnish the Church with Sunday-school su- 
perintendents and teachers, paying them a liberal 
salary, and paying all the other expenses, few if 
any places, even in the rural districts, would be 
found without an evergreen school. Do you not 
know that this material oiling would keep the ma- 
chinery running smoothly the year round. Let it 
be understood at any given place that the house 
will be in order and comfortable, that the officers 
and teachers will severally be at their posts of duty, 
and that the literature and all other necessary sup- 



86 The Great Evil and Its Remedij. 

plies will be free of charge. Give these assurances* 
and there will be no trouble in getting the children 
to attend our Sunday-schools during the winter 
months. And the old folks will cease to complain 
and to urge objections against the impracticability 
of Sunday-schools in the winter. In this case, you 
may depend on it the weather will not be in the 
way. 

The truth is that for many reasons the winter is 
the better season of the year for both Sunday and 
day schools. These facts ought to lead some people 
to a better life. It is for the want of means and a 
comfortable place to meet that closes so many of 
our Sabbath-schools in the winter. This is simply 
the naked truth* which cannot be disguised or de- 
nied. That there are other reasons I do not deny, 
such as needless self-indulgence, and the lack of 
proper intelligence and interest on the subject. 
With some there is a want of enterprise, of will, 
and of energy to work for the Master. But after all, 
what is most needed is liberality— the grace of giv- 
ing. It is not that the Church is poor, for she has 
great stores of wealth. But alas! she fails to tithe 
this wealth for God. I speak of the Church as a 
whole. Many individuals are up to the full measure 
of duty. O that the whole Church would do her 
duty, that God might be glorified in the salvation 
of much people! All our Sabbath-schools ought to 



The Sunday-school. 



be evergreen schools. It was my good fortune 
when a child to belong to this class of schools, as 
also later in life* I have no recollection of attend- 
ing a Sunday-school that went into winter quarters. 

The perpetual life and success of a Sunday-school 
Is often due to a few persons rather than to the 
whole Church. They will be satisfied with nothing 
less than an evergreen school, and labor diligently 
and with perseverance until the desired end is 
reached* It is marvelous what power and influence 
are exerted at times by an individual family or 
person who stands firm for the right and Who is 
willing to lead the Way at whatever sacrifice of 
time, of means, of labor, or of suffering. The Sun- 
day-school, even with money and other facilities, 
may fail for the want of such leadership. A man 
in the Church with strong convictions, with intelli- 
gent and large views, with an acknowledged piety 
and blameless life, and with a consecrated purse 
and energy to do the will of God, is a host within 
himself. He quickens, inspires, and leads others to 
a better and a more active and useful life. They 
are moved forward to a greater diligence, and de- 
light in the service of God and in the work of the 
Church. On the other hand, it is not difficult to 
find those who are a positive hinderance to the 
cause and work of God. 

In many places there are no organized schools, 



The Great Evil and Its Remedy. 



not even during the summer months, This is a 
matter of regret, and ought to have a speedy rem- 
edy. It is not wise to wait for the gathering to- 
gether of great numbers, In many respects small 
schools are preferable and more prosperous than 
larger ones. A dozen children, more or less, are 
sufficient to begin with. In no case should the 
Church at any given place be content without a 
Sunday-school. Such a loss would not only work 
ill to her interests and prosperity, but to the com- 
munity and to posterity. It will require time, la- 
bor, and money; but what if it does? Such expend- 
itures always pay well. And the more liberal the 
outlay the more abundant the harvest " But this 
I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also 
sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall 
reap also bountifully." 

The utility and reward of Sunday-school organ- 
ization and work are much every way. There is 
much of morality and of Christian civilization in 
the Sabbath-school. It leads the rising generation 
to industry, honesty, and sobriety, and thus secures 
and perpetuates national wealth. It was on this 
ground that a noted infidel gave ten dollars annu- 
ally to support a Sunday-school in the neighbor- 
hood where he lived. He declared that he saved 
more than this amount in apples and melons, which 
otherwise would have been stolen and destroyed by 



The Sunday-school 80 

reckless, bad boys. But these virtues and excellences 
are as nothing compared with its work of saving souk. 
The one great object of Sunday-school work is to 
lead the children to Christ, and to secure to them a 
happy Christian life and a home in heaven. Less 
than this would be dishonoring to God and to the 
Church, and be considered a failure in the eyes of 
the world. 

The teachers, as far as possible and for this rea- 
son, should not only be members of the Church, 
but consistently pious Christians. They should be 
exemplary in character and life and truly and 
earnestly devoted to their work. Individuals of 
good morals, intelligent, and well-informed, but not 
personally pious, may teach with a measure of sue- 
cess. If this is the best that can be clone at any 
given time and place, forbid them not. The Bible 
rule, however, is to teach both by precept and ex- 
ample. Those who teach the precepts of the gospel 
ought to enforce the same by a pure heart and 
godly life. We want Sunday-school teachers who 
are blameless before God in love, in fidelity, and in 
good works. 

The pastor occupies the first and highest place in 
the Sunday-school. He ranks all others. This 
place and power of the pastor gives him an unlim- 
ited field of work and usefulness. As far as other 
duties will allow, therefore, he should always be 



90 The Great Evil and Its Hemedg, 

present This is both desirable and helpful every 
way. The prosperity of the school is with him in 
a most vital sense. Great responsibilities are upon 
him, and he should neither shirk nor dodge the issue. 
I am aware that some differ with me on this sub- 
ject, giving to the pastor a lower place and lesser 
responsibilities. With these I have no quarrel. 
Still I feel confident that I am right touching this 
question. I do not speak officially or authorita- 
tively, but only from my understanding of the law 
and usage which should govern in all such cases. I 
do speak, and that confidently too, from experience 
and observation confirmed in the nature and fitness 
of things. We neither degrade nor dishonor the 
superintendent in this view of the subject He is 
in all and over all the Work, great in his authority 
and responsibilities* There is none greater than 
he except the pastor. 

It is well to have an organized school with com- 
petent officers and teachers, and good books, papers, 
and other helps; but this is only the beginning or 
starting-point. The helps and facilities of the Sun- 
day-school are one thing; their right use is another 
and quite a different thing, One may have all 
these only to be under the greater condemnation. 
The children must be taught this in a practical 
way, otherwise the benefits of the school will be 
largely lost upon them. Especially should they le 



The Sunday-seh ool 91 

taught the duty and the importance of studying 
the lesson in advance. The teachers of course 
should observe this rule. Without such previous 
preparation on the part of both teachers and schol- 
ars the time and labor spent in the school are meas- 
urably lost. All the parties and interests involved 
must suffer the evil consequences to a greater or 
less extent. 

There are available and numerous helps to- all 
Sunday-school teachers and scholars. Some of 
these are very valuable, and may be Used to great 
advantage. But teachers should not too rigidly 
adhere to these helps. To some extent the teacher 
should be independent in his thoughts and methods 
of teaching. It is a good* practice to cross-question 
the pupils to know whether or not they understand 
the lesson, and to more firmly fix the truth in the 
mind. In the recapitulation of the lesson, in the 
class and before the whole school, this method of 
instruction may be used to good effect. A mere 
routine and perfunctory performance should be 
avoided. Teachers who have the work at heart, 
and the presence and help of the Spirit, will rise to 
a higher plane of usefulness. Sunday-school work 
should be made as thorough as possible; a mere 
surface teaching amounts to but little, A sacred 
calling like this is not the place for a bungler. In 
a word, our schools should be officered and taught, 



92 The Great Evil and Its Remedy, 

as a rule, by men and women of age and experi- 
ence, They should be honorable and of good re j 
port, noted for their intelligence, learning, and 
piety. And only such as will command the confi- 
dence and respect of both the Church and commu- 
nity. 

The relation of the infant and other classes of 
small children to the school is one of delicacy, in- 
volving more than ordinary interests* It is well 
to have separate classes, with an infant department. 
This is convenient, if not a necessity; but there is 
danger of being too rigid and circumscribed in this 
direction. The school is one, and its unity must 
not be broken. In forming classes or other work 
in the organization and government of the school 
these facts must be kept in view. In the opening 
and closing of the school, in the service of song, 
and in every other possible way, let the younger 
children be brought in direct contact and sympathy 
with the whole school, and made to feel that they 
are a part of it, and not simply a class to them- 
selves. Give them to understand that they are one 
with the older and more advanced scholars in the 
rights, privileges, and benefits of the school. A 
general review of the lesson at the close of the 
school, properly conducted, may be alike profitable 
to young and old. In this way each may receive a 
portion suited to his and her age, capacity, and 



The Sunday-school '. 



necessities. The whole school should eat at the 
same table, and the food should be of such charac- 
ter and in such quantity and variety as to meet 
the wants of all. This community of association, 
instruction, and fellowship can hardly be stressed 
too much. It binds the different departments and 
classes of the school together, and this bond of 
union goes with them into other relations, duties, 
and labors in Church-work. This, as much as any 
other one thing, will tend to secure the attendance 
of the children on the public preaching of the gos- 
pel. This is greatly to be desired, and any thing 
looking to this end should be encouraged. The 
Sunday-school and pulpit have interests in common, 
and should work together in the unity of the Spirit. 



CHAPTER V. 

The Living Ministry. 

The gospel, as preached by the representatives 
of the Lord Jesus Christ, is pre-eminently above 
and superior to all other instrumentalities in the 
awakening, instruction, and salvation of men. It 
is of divine appointment; God calls and sends men 
to this one work. Their only business is to save 
souls. In the nature of the case they can have no 
other employment. The magnitude and impor- 
tance of the work require their whole time, talents, 
and opportunities. They are in the stead of God 
to the people. On this subject Paul says of himself 
and the other apostles: "God . . . hath commit- 
ted unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then 
we are embassadors for Christ, as though God did 
beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be 
ye reconciled to God." 

The word of life, as dispensed by them, is the 
same gospel that Jesus himself would preach were 
he present in person to occupy the pulpit. In the 
light of these facts the gospel has great magnitude, 
authority, and power. It commands the attention 
and obedience of all men, Jew and Gentile alike. 
(94) . 



The Living Ministry. 95 

To neglect or slight the gospel is to dishonor its 
Author and destroy our own peace and happiness. 
To persist in such a course would be to destroy 
both soul and body forever. This is affirmed of 
all, of every age and condition in life, who reject 
the gospel. And this is the only reason why any 
soul of man ^s ever lost. 

Children, as well as adults, need the benefits of 
the gospel, and have a right to them. Hence the 
children who are deprived of the gospel sufTer 
wrongfully, and sustain great and irreparable loss. 

More than this, the rights and benefits of the 
gospel belong to the children in a pre-eminent 
sense. They are charter members in " the king- 
dom of God," and must not be shut out. The rec- 
ognition of their membership in the Church of God 
by baptism is based in part on this fact. There 
are many other reasons for baptizing children, but 
this will at least serve to show that infant baptism 
is not an unmeaning ceremony, as some have sup- 
posed. But it is not our purpose to argue this ques- 
tion here; we simply say in passing, let the children 
be baptized in every place. 

It is well, I may say a duty, that our children at- 
tend the Sunday-school service ; but it is far more 
important that they should hear the gospel by the 
mouth of the living ministry. The gospel from the 
pulpit is with authority, " and in demonstration of 



96 The Great Evil and Its Remedy. 

the Spirit and of power." Let all the children of 
the Church attend witji their parents. And let irre- 
ligious parents and their children be persuaded to 
hear and obey the gospel. There is no reason why 
our children may not have the benefits of both the 
Sunday-school and the ministry. But if for any 
cause, in a given place, they cannot have both, 
then let the Sunday-school go, and hold on to the 
pulpit. I should not hesitate for a moment to make 
this choice for my children, and I believe that God 
would approve and bless the action as wise and 
good. It is certainly the part of wisdom to accept 
and take the greater good, and as between the Sun- 
day-school and the gospel by the living preacher 
there is no comparison. The two can never be made 
equal, much less should the Sunday-school have the 
preference over the ministry even for children. If 
we are to have the one and not the other, then give 
to me, and give to my children after me, in all the 
generations to come, the gospel as taught of God 
by his appointed ministry. There is no substitute 
for the preached gospel by men ordained and sent 
of God, 'and nothing should be allowed to supplant 
it. The gospel is the great power of God in mor- 
als and religion, and the youngest and oldest alike 
need its benefits. Many good people are in error 
at this point, supposing the Sunday-school adequate 
to meet all the wants of the children. This ac- 



The Living Ministry. 97 

counts largely for the absence of the children from 
the preaching service. This neglect of the house of 
God has settled into a habit with many children, 
which has become alarming in many localities. Un- 
less the evil is cured the Church will sustain great 
loss. Any delusion or pretext that keeps the chil- 
dren away from church is an evil, not excepting 
the Sunday-school. But this is the abuse, and not 
the legitimate effects, of the Sunday-school ; and it 
comes about in the way I have suggested, and from 
other erroneous ideas entertained and practiced 
along this line. Many of our schools, and especially 
those in the towns and cities, close just before the 
public services begin, and the children are not ex- 
pected to remain. Their part of the service of God 
has ended, and they are dismissed and sent away 
as having no interest in the preaching. This serv- 
ice is for the old folks, and not for the children, 
At least this is the impression made on the minds 
of the children. Thus dismissed, they go home, or 
may be into the streets, the parents in many in- 
stances know not where; and some of them, al- 
though professed Christians, occupying prominent 
places in the Church, seem not to care. Those who 
are solicitous and watchful appear often to have 
but little control over their children, who, in con- 
sequence, do about as they please. 

It is held by some that it is too confining to keep 
7 



98 The Great Evil and Its Remedy. 

the children in to hear the sermon ; and more than 
this, that the children must be allowed some recre- 
ations and liberties on the Sabbath. This is the 
misguided reasoning of some parents, the Church 
too often concurring. This evil is sometimes en- 
couraged by the preachers. Such an indorsement 
on their part establishes the wrong almost beyond 
remedy. Most preachers, however, take the correct 
view of this subject, and do what they can to have 
the children hear the gospel. 

Children go to the day-school, and stay two or 
three times as long as at the Sunday-school, and 
nothing is thought of it. True, they get tired, 
grow weary, returning home faint and half sick at 
times. All this is expected, the cost has been 
counted in advance; and so the next day they go 
again, and keep on going to the end of the term. 
This is secular education, and the interests involved 
are of sufficient importance to justify the course we 
have suggested as the common practice. This is all 
right, and has our hearty indorsement. But are the 
Sunday-school interests and work of less importance, 
and to be made less laborious to our children? 
Is a secular education worth more than a knowl- 
edge of the Bible? Is this great text-book in mor- 
als and religion, which is infallible in its teach- 
ing, to be made second in importance to the books 
used in our common and public schools? Are 



The Living Ministry. 99 

worldly endowments to be preferred to a Christian 
and religions culture? It would seem so, judging 
from the teachings and practice of many of the 
present time. Actions speak louder than words; 
and, judging from this voice and testimony, with the 
masses a religious education is of secondary impor- 
tance. Let us away with all such false and contra- 
dictory reasoning, and throw the doors wide open 
that our children may come in and have the benefits 
of the living ministry as well as those of the Sunday- 
school. 

But it is objected that the children are not capa- 
ble of pulpit instruction ; that its teachings are above 
their capacity of comprehension. This cannot be 
true, for the same shepherd who feeds the sheep is 
required also to feed the lambs. There is in the 
gospel " the sincere milk of the word " for the chil- 
dren, as truly as there is "strong meat for them 
who are able to bear it." The gospel is one alike 
suited to old and young. The children who have 
their rights in the home do not eat at a separate 
side-table, but with their parents and other growm 
people. The table is supposed to be furnished with 
a suitable variety of food to meet the tastes and 
wants of all: milk and bread for the children, and 
the stronger diet for those who are older and need 
it. In like manner let the old folks and children 
eat together in the sanctuary of God. Surely the 



100 The Great Evil and Its Remedy. 

stated gospel repasts, served by God's appointed 
ministry, have sufficient variety to meet the "wants 
of all ages and classes. The children need the priv- 
ileges and benefits of the gospel as really as do their 
parents. Let neither class be deprived of them. 
All the children should attend the regular Church 
service in every place. And let the special and ex- 
traordinary means and agencies of the gospel be 
put within their reach. Any child capable of be- 
ing taught in the Sunday-school may take lessons 
from the pulpit, with at least a measure of profit to 
God's glory in the prospective good of the Church. 
Therefore take all and always your little ones with 
you to the house of God. This will please your 
heavenly Father, and be a delight to the holy an- 
gels, supposing them to be cognizant of the affairs of 
men on earth. Yea, and thine own soul also, will 
be made to joy in God and to rejoice forever. This 
is the way of God's appointment to us and to 
our children, leading us and them to salvation, 
to a useful and happy life, and to a home at last in 
heaven. 

The behavior of children at Church is a question 
that deserves consideration in this connection. I 
favor the custom of families sitting together in the 
same pew, and especially when the children are 
young. In this way the father can better assist the 
mother in the duty of caring for the children ; keep- 



The Living Ministry. 101 

ing them in place, quiet, attentive, and orderly in 
every respect, and to the close of the service. They 
must be taught church manners, and the parents 
are charged with this duty; and the sooner the 
work is begun the better. This may possibly seem 
a trivial matter to some persons, but it is not. 
The child's good behavior in the house of God in 
after life depends largely on its early training. 
And much more than this: Good behavior in the 
house of God is healthful and helpful to children, 
in morals, in religion, and in personal piety and 
usefulness in all after life. And if so, then the 
eternal destiny of individuals — to a greater or less 
extent — may be involved in this question, which to 
many seems to be of but little consequence. 

The congregation standing to sing, the children 
should stand ; kneeling to pray, teach the children 
to kneel. They should be as ready and as exact 
in conformity to the rules of social and public 
worship as the parents themselves. Where they 
are properly taught they will do so intelligently 
and willingly. I give this example from real life. 
Two little children — a son and daughter of pious 
parents — are visiting with their mother at a distant 
place, and among strangers. On the Sabbath the 
mother could not attend, but sent the children to 
church. They sat together in the same pew, and 
observed closely the forms of worship, standing to 



102 The Great Evil and Its Remedy. 

sing and kneeling to pray — their behavior through- 
out being such as becomes the house of God. This 
was a matter of surprise to the congregation, and 
the subject of favorable criticisms at the close of 
the services. The children of this congregation 
had not been trained in this way, and hence the 
surprise and criticisms I have mentioned. But 
why not train all children in this way? It looks 
well, and it is well. This is the divine method as 
laid down in the Scriptures. " Train up a child 
in the way he should go; and when he is old, he 
will not depart from it." Many parents are sur- 
prised and mortified at the misconduct of their 
grown sons and daughters at church. This is often 
not so much an intentional wrong with them as a 
habit growing out of the neglect of proper training. 
Now it seems next to impossible to learr- a better 
way. Such neglect on the part of parents is cruel 
to their children, dishonoring to God and a re- 
proach upon themselves and the Church of which 
they are members. 

Among other things of importance, children 
should be taught to give their personal attention 
to the preacher and to what be says from the pul- 
pit. And they may learn this lesion very early, 
though after much labor and painstaking on the 
part of the parents. They should be established 
in their attention to the gospel by the time they 



The Living Ministry, 103 

are old enough to begin to understand and appre- 
ciate its lessons of divine wisdom and salvation. 
But if at this age the children have yet to learn to 
he attentive, it must be to the shame of their par- 
ents, and at a great loss to themselves. It is mar- 
velous that so many parents never think of this 
matter, much less give any personal attention to 
it. They leave their children to themselves, to 
hear the gospel or not, at their own pleasure. They 
know but little about the behavior of their children 
at church, aud seem to care less. Others, who are 
wot willfully neglectful, are sometimes misguided as 
to their duties and responsibilities; and at the age 
when they expect and are anxious to have their 
children receive and obey the gospel they are 
found inattentive and careless, seemingly having 
no concern whatever about their souls. The father 
wonders at this, and his heart is grieved. I hear 
him say: "O that my children would turn to God 
and seek salvation ! " The mother joins in the 
lamentations of her husband. In the deep anguish 
of her soul she exclaims : " O it seems so strange 
that our children are still in sin and in the way to 
death and hell. It seems so strange that they will 
knowingly reject Christ and remain out of the 
Church. I do greatly long to see them numbered 
among the people of God and on the way to 
heaven." In most of such cases the trouble lies in 



104 The Great Evil and Its Remedy. 

the lack of proper training, and possibly the prin- 
cipal wrong is found in the fact that the children 
-were not taught to be attentive to the word 
preached. 

Another matter. In the rural districts, when 
the weather will permit, the children are sometimes 
allowed to run in and out of the church-house dur- 
ing the public service. They have the freedom of 
the yard, talking, laughing, sporting, and no at- 
tention is given to their conduct. While they are 
without the parents are numbered with the sincere, 
devout worshipers within. Strange inconsistency ! 
Such facts are incredible — at least hard to believe 
by those who have never witnessed any thing of the 
sort. No wonder, when such children have grown 
to be men and women, if they shall be found want- 
ing in respect and proper reverence for the house 
and worship of God. "As the twig is bent the 
tree's inclined." This old and familiar adage has 
a lesson in it that some parents are slow to learn. 
Instill moral and religious principles into the 
minds and hearts of children, and establish in 
them correct and good habits, and there will be no 
trouble in their after character and lives. 

Several years ago the Rev. John D. Vincil, a 
member of the Missouri Annual Conference, gave 
me the following interesting incident of his minis- 
try. He was conducting a revival meeting at the 



The Living Ministry. 105 

time in Callaway County, Mo. Among the con- 
verts was a young lady of good personal manners 
and appearance and a liberal education. She was 
the pride of her parents and respected and admired 
in the community. She had attended Church 
with some degree of regularity all her life, but up 
to the time of this meeting she had been a listless, 
indifferent hearer of the gospel. She said that on 
going to church she would hear the voice of the 
preacher, not understanding what he said, and that 
she had no desire or expectation of being benefited 
by the sermon. She attended church because she 
was fond of society, and the drift w r as in that di- 
rection. This was the custom, and she was glad to 
conform to it. It was a pastime, a recreation, 
and without a serious thought of saving her soul. 
But on hearing Dr. Vincil for the first time, she 
noted the text, and followed him thoughtfully 
through the subject from beginning to end. She 
was delighted with the discourse. This she said 
was the first sermon she had ever heard in all her 
life. Under this sermon she was convicted and 
brought to Christ. No doubt she would have ex- 
perienced religion years before this if she had given 
proper attention to the word preached. Great 
multitudes remain unsaved, from year to year, for 
the want of attentive consideration to what God 
says through his appointed ministry. But there 



106 The Great Evil and Its Remedy. 

is another interest of great importance connected 
with this subject. The event of salvation is a 
great thing at any period of life, but the earlier in 
life the better. Take the case of the young lady I 
have mentioned. The time and the joy of her sal- 
vation were delayed for years, although she was 
converted comparatively young. Who can esti- 
mate the loss of those years to her, the Church, 
the cause of God, of humanity, and of posterity? 
She has lost opportunities to do good, joossibly to 
save souls, which she can never regain. The delay 
of salvation to a human soul is no small or trivial 
matter. 

Re-preaching the Sermon. 

It is not enough that the children should attend 
church and hear the sermon, but the parents should 
re-preach it to them on returning home. This is 
best done in most cases by catechetical instructions. 
The best time, perhaps, is an hour in the afternoon 
on Sunday, but any time during the week will do. 
I suggest the following as indicating the character 
and manner of the service. The family all pres- 
ent, with some of the grandchildren, the father 
says : " Samuel, tell us, my son, the text the preacher 
used as the foundation of his discourse. I desire 
to know the book, chapter, and verse. Where is 
this text found; in the Old or New Testament? 
Leora, my daughter, you may answer. Master 



The Living Ministry. 107 

Buell \\ ill please tell us how the text reads. Give 
us the exact wording if you can ; but if not, give us 
the sense of the passage in your own words. In 
what connection are these words found, and by 
whom and under what circumstances were they 
spoken ? Let all give attention while Zora gives 
us the answer. Ollie May will now state the sub- 
ject of the text, and give the principal or lead- 
ing thoughts as presented by the preacher. Well 
done! And now let Ethel tell what the preacher 
said under these several divisions of his subject. 
What were his statements, arguments, and illus- 
trations? Tell us just what you remember of these 
things. And now Lizzie will give us the conclud- 
ing part of the sermon, recapitulating the principal 
points in the arrangement and discussion of the 
subject." 

If the children cannot answer these and like 
questions, it is supposed that the parents can. In 
this way the sermon is re-preached in the home. 
This is to the glory of God in the great good of 
both parents and children. This is one of the very 
best means of securing attention to pulpit instruc- 
tions. If for no other reason, the children, knowing 
that they are to be catechised, will give the more 
earnest attention to the things they hear. They 
will soon learn to be critical auditois as well as at- 
tentive hearers. The parents also will be the mare 



108 The Great Evil and Its Remedy. 

careful on their part that they may be better pre- 
pared to teach their children in the way we have 
suggested. This sort of work is included in what 
Paul says: "Holding forth the word of life; that 
I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not 
run in vain, neither labored in vain." I know from 
experience that this method of catechising children 
is of great practical utility. This was my father's 
custom. Others " walk by the same rule and mind 
the same things," but when compared with the 
whole number of religious households they are few 
and far between. The largest benefits of the gos- 
pel can never be attained in the neglect or viola- 
tion of this custom. It would be a grand thing 
for the Church of God and for our common hu- 
manity if this practice was universally observed. 
The actual existence of such a state of things would 
extend the gospel with great power and rapidity 
into the regions beyond; and in this event the 
angels would hold a jubilee in heaven. " There is 
joy in the presence of the angels of God over one 
sinner that repenteth." And this joy is increased 
in the ratio of the number of those who are saved. 
The gospel in the sanctuary, in the home, and in 
the hearts and lives of parents and children, is 
certainly a most desirable as it is a most joyous 
and gratifying state of things. The patriarch in 
the family is not less honorable than the minister 



The Living Ministry. 109 

in the pulpit; nor has he a less important work to 
perform, although in some sense it is not as great 
in its magnitude and results. The patriarch is 
God's appointed minister in the home. He should 
be a co- worker with the living ministry. 



CHAPTER VI. 

The Pressing Inquiry. 

I have called attention to the great evil of par- 
ents living in sin, and consequently neglecting the 
moral and religious training of their children. I 
have also sought out and brought to notice the 
proper remedy. This I have done with specific ex- 
actness, giving in detail the methods, ways, and 
means of escape. I have told plainly, but affec- 
tionately, when, how, and what to do, that no harm, 
but good, may come to both parents and children, 
here and hereafter. I have kept to the point, have 
stuck close to the text — " The Great Evil and Its 
Remedy." God alone knows how anxious I am 
that the remedy may be accepted and the evil cured. 
This remedy, as we have shown, is " not of man, nei- 
ther by man," but is of the wisdom, grace, and power 
of God. He only can save men from sin and lead 
them into a better life. The plan or method of sal- 
vation is clearly revealed in the written word of 
God, " which is the only rule and the sufficient rule, 
both of our faith and practice." It remains now 
only to ask, and to press the inquiry home to every 
parent : What will you do? There is a moral fain- 
(110) 



The Pressing Inquiry. Ill 

ine in the land, and thousands are perishing annu- 
ally in their sins. This destitution, as we have 
shown, exists to a greater or less extent throughout 
all Christendom, as well as in the pagan nations of 
the earth. In the face of these facts, what ought 
to be done? What can be done to relieve the starv- 
ing of our race? Reader, what will you do? You 
see the peril; will you help to save these perishing 
souls? or will you stand quietly by and see the ris- 
ing generation go into the bondage of sin and death, 
and down into the pit of eternal night, without an 
effort to prevent it? Shall the infant and the lit- 
tle child find no security in their own parents ? Shall 
they be led captive by Satan at his will, the par- 
ents, as sentinels, asleep at their posts? Shall our 
children in Christian lands be idolaters, worshiping 
at the shrine of fashion, of wealth, of honor, and of 
human glory? Shall they go after and worship the 
gods of the heathen, and not the living and true 
.God? And shall the fearful and destructive con- 
sequences of idolatry be their inheritance and the 
portion of their cup forever? I put these ques- 
tions by way of recapitulation and application of 
our subject. I appeal with the greatest possible 
earnestness to all parents, whether religious or irre- 
ligious; we urge them to consider well their duty. 
Parents, if they will, may save their children from 
sin and death and hell. They may at least clear 



112 The Great Evil and Its Remedy. 

their own skirts of their children's blood. They 
are appointed of God to this work. Would God 
select agents inadequate to his purposes, requiring 
impossibilities of them ? It is the gracious privilege 
and duty of all parents to go to heaven and to take 
their children with them. If any of the children 
should obstinately refuse to go along, the condem- 
nation is theirs, and not with their faithful parents. 
This is the plain and simple record of God's word, 
the teaching of the gospel from the beginning. 
Abraham, Joshua, and others in the Old Testament 
times understood this, as the record shows. And 
they have left to all parents coming after them an 
example worthy of imitation. Their fidelity to God 
and to their separate households was such as to great- 
ly encourage others, inspiring them with confidence 
and hope of success. This is one of the many rea- 
sons showing the importance of a knowledge of the 
scriptures of the Old as well as of the Xew Testa- 
ment. God said of Abraham: "For I know him, . 
that he will command his children and his house- 
hold after him, and they shall keep the way of the 
Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord 
rnav bring upon Abraham that which he hath 
spoken of him." Joshua, in addressing the tribes 
at Shechem, said: " Fear the Lord, and serve him 
in sincerity and in truth ; and put away the gods 
which vour fathers served on the other side of the 



The Pressing Inquiry. 113 

flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the Lord. And 
if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose 
you this day whom ye will serve ; whether the gods 
which your fathers served that were on the other 
side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in 
whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, 
we will serve the Lord." Abraham and his chil- 
dren and Joshua and his household were one in 
the service of God. They worshiped at the same 
altar and journeyed in the same narrow way to 
heaven. This is in striking contrast w T ith many 
Christian parents of this day, who are apparently 
content to serve God alone, while their children 
are in the service of the wicked one. The parents 
are traveling onward and upward in the direction 
of "life eternal," but the children are going down- 
ward " into everlasting punishment." This is a con- 
tradiction to the love and mercy of God in Jesus 
Christ, to reason, and the fitness of things. But that 
it is true cannot be denied. An unbroken house- 
hold in the service of God in this life is the way to 
secure an unbroken family in heaven. This is God's 
method "in bringing many sons unto glory." The 
people of God in the Old Testament times are num- 
bered by families. We find also the same happy 
state of things in the New Testament dispensation. 
The children, as of old, are brought into the Church 
w T ith their parents. There is a common interest 
8 



114 The Great Evil and Its Remedy. 

and bond of Christian union between them. This 
is gracious in God, and most gratifying to his creat- 
ures. It is both divine and human that it should 
be this way. God has joined together in his serv- 
ice parents and their children, and let no creed or 
Church or other human authority put them asun- 
der. The natural affinities which bind them to- 
gether are soon to be broken in death, but the spir- 
itual ties shall never be dissolved. But to the 
record of the New Testament on this subject. In- 
stance the house of Chloe, and also of Stephanas ; 
Lydia and her household; the jailer at Philippi, 
and all his — "all his children" for so the original 
has it. We read also of " the unfeigned faith " that 
was in Timothy, " which dwelt first in his grand- 
mother Lois and his mother Eunice." This shows 
the utility, the great power for good there is in 
household religion. In morals and religion this is 
now, as it ever has been in the past, a great desid- 
eratum. What is most needed in the Church of 
to-day is piety in parents, with good works, which 
shall influence their children's children to the third 
and fourth generations — nay, more than this, a 
holy character and godly life in parents, reproduced 
in the generations to come without limit. Unbelief 
may suggest that this is an impossibility; but faith 
says this is the work of God, and that it can, it 
must, it shall be done. In this work the parents 



The Pressing Inquiry. 115 

are the first and most responsible agents; then the 
Church and ministry come in as helpers, co-work- 
ers in perpetuating the knowledge, love, and salva- 
tion of God amongst men in the earth. Let these 
parties, so vitally interested, keep wide-awake to 
their duties and responsibilities. Let all the facts 
involved be carefully studied and understood. Such 
knowledge will surely quicken them to a greater 
diligence, activity, and efficiency in the Master's 
service. Let every Christian philosopher and phi- 
lanthropist and every good man and woman, how- 
ever humble and obscure their station in life may 
be, come to the rescue. Here are the dear chil- 
dren, hundreds of thousands in number, scattered 
throughout the world, who are to be saved of God 
through human instrumentalities, or lost forever. 
They must be taught that there is a God, one liv- 
ing and true God, their God and Saviour; and that 
they should love the Lord their God with all their 
heart, and with all their soul, and with all their 
mind, and with all their strength, and their neigh- 
bor as themselves. This is the will of God in a nut- 
shell, the sum of Christian theology and of Biblical 
knowledge, and the perfection of Christian experi- 
ence and happiness. This is the fulfillment of all 
righteousness and true holiness — the whole duty of 
man. The standard is high, but those who ivill may 
attain unto it by the help of God. 



116 The Great Evil and Its Remedy. 

Reader, I still press the inquiry : What will you 
do? And it is well to take into the account not 
only the consequences of sin in this life, but also in 
the life which is to come. Sin pollutes, defiles, and 
degrades the moral nature ; perverts the affections, 
dishonors the body, and kills the soul. It destroys 
both soul and body in hell. The man who lives 
and dies under the guilt, power, dominion, and 
consequences of sin is a failure; he is ruined for- 
ever; " good were it for that man if he had never 
been born." Alas! it is to be feared that there are 
many such, whose feet take hold on death and hell. 
All such, living without God, shall die without hope. 
Many of them pass through the gate of death in 
great agony of mind and grief of soul, and as they 
step one by one into the swelling, turbid waters of 
the Jordan I hear them curse the day of their 
birth and the God of their being. One says, just 
as he steps into the chilly waters: "Myself am 
hell." Another, as he closes his eyes in death, ex- 
claims: " I am taking a leap into the dark." Oth- 
ers, like these, die in great agony and remorse of 
conscience. Alas for a soul without God and 
without hope! The Psalmist says: "The wicked 
shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that 
forget God." Again, he says: "Upon the wicked 
he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and a hor- 
rible tempest: this shall be the portion of their 



Th e Pressin g In qulry. 117 



cup." "And thes? shall go away into everlasting 
punishment; but the righteous into life eternal." 
This last quotation is the decision of the Judge at 
the last day, And this is what St. Paul has to 
say on the subject: "The Lord Jesus shall be re^ 
vealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flam- 
ing fire taking vengeance on them who know not 
God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord 
Jesus Christ; who shall be punished with everlast- 
ing destruction from the presence of the Lord, and 
from the glory of his power," And shall my chil- 
dren be numbered with these wicked individuals 
and nations w 7 ho shall be turned into hell? Are 
they doomed to be overtaken by a horrible tempest 
of snares, fire, and brimstone, with no hope of es- 
cape? And shall they go away into everlasting 
punishment, to endure the pains and agonies of the 
second death— the death that never dies? Must 
this be the portion of their cup forever? And is 
this dreadful loss of the soul because they knew not 
God, and did not obey the gospel of the Lord Jesus 
Christ? And am I as a parent at fault? Have I 
neglected my duty ? The door of heaven is now 
and forever closed against my children, and they 
are cast into outer darkness, where " there shall be 
weeping and gnashing of teeth." Is the cause of 
their damnation in me? O what parent can bear 
such a thought as this, much less endure the calam* 



118 The Great Evil and Its Remedy. 

ity in the eternal loss of the souls of their children ? 
O ye parents, look upon that lovely, charming 
daughter, and upon that sprightly, promising son, 
and, as you prize their souls and your own, hasten 
to lead them to Christ and to a home in heaven* 

I am persuaded that only those who have wit- 
nessed the terrible remorse of the ungodly, and have 
heard their wailings of despair in the dying hour can 
have any just conceptions of the sufferings and ago* 
nies which they endure. It is nothing more nor 
less than the torments of hell, begun and realized on 
earth; it is a foretaste of the pain, sorrow, anguish, 
and sufferings of the pit of eternal death, that which 
must be endured forever. It is not necessary that 
wicked men should die to know from experience 
what the rich man suffered when he cried and said. 
" Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send 
Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in 
water, and cool my tongue ; for I am tormented in 
this flame." The flame is kindled in the torments 
of a guilty conscience in this life. If there are no 
torments in the soul here, there can be no hell to 
the soul hereafter. It is not the place so much as 
the condition of the soul that gives joy or grief, 
that gives ease or pain, that creates its heaven or 
its hell. There is something, it is true, in the place 
we call hell which is undesirable and forbidding; 
it is the place " prepared for the devil and his an- 



The Pressing Inquiry. 119 

gels." How terrible it must be! awful beyond de= 
scription I a place that fills the soul with fear and 
dread. It is the place of " outer darkness " and of 
"everlasting punishment; " it is the place of "per- 
dition," of future misery and " eternal death." But 
even such a place as this, so tormenting to a iost 
soul, would be tolerable to the saint of God, Were 
it possible for a redeemed soul, " washed " and made 
" white in the blood of the Lamb," to go down to 
hell, there would come to it no manner of hurt, 
The place could not destroy its happiness in God. 
The case of the three Hebrew children who were 
cast into the burning fiery furnace is illustrative of 
this subject. With the Son of God walking with 
them in the midst of the fire, it took no effect upon 
them. And so the fires of perdition could have no 
effect on a pure spirit, a soul " washed, sanctified, 
and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by 
the Spirit of our God." Personal salvation by faith 
in the Son of God forever quenches the devouring 
flames of hell. It is only sin that can kill beyond 
the tomb. Ah! it is sin that does the mischief, 
Where there is no sin there is no death, no hell, no 
suffering. Every sinner determines his own desti- 
ny. "Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with 
Mm : for the reward of his hands shall be given 
him." " The wages of sin is death ; but the gift of 
God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." 



120 The Great Evil and Its Remedy. 

" The soul that sinn.eth, it shall die.'* This means 
a soul lost forever! Lost, lost, lost! Ko human 
tongue can tell nor angel pen describe the sufferings 
of a lost soul. Great multitudes, in the error of 
their ways, choose death rather than life. Some 
even seem greedy of their own destruction. They 
hasten to ruin, and take their children with them. 

Header, I am glad that there is an opposite pict- 
ure to this, and we will look on that before we 
part. It is a lovely picture — bright, beautiful, 
charming. I never look upon it but in admiration 
and delight. It is a picture that the angels are in- 
terested in, and as they gaze upon it they give glory 
to God. It is the scene of a household, united in 
the fear and service of God. There is no purer or 
better type of heaven than a religious household, 
as once before stated. I hear a father say: " I am 
resolved to educate and train my children for God 
and heaven. If my personal piety toward God and 
fidelity to my children can be used of God in their 
salvation, then shall they not be lost." And the 
good man is doubly assured of success in this most 
desirable and delightful work by the hearty co- 
operation of the mother. She joins her piety, tears, 
prayers, songs, and all her sympathy, strength, and 
powers with the noblest and best efforts of her hus- 
band. They realize that they are one in the desire 
and effort to save their children. But the work is 



The Pressing Inquiry. 1^1 

one of great delicacy and difficulty, as it is one of 
great magnitude. And it is increasingly so as the 
children grow older and their wants become more 
numerous and complicated. But they are only the 
more watchful, prayerful, and diligent in the use of 
all the means of grace. They lean by faith on the 
strong arm of God, and plead for help in the name 
of Christ. Nor do they plead in vain. They are 
strengthened and emboldened in their faith by the 
exceeding great and precious promises of the gos- 
pel, and the intercessions of Christ, which never fail, 
The divine presence, direction, and blessing are 
given in answer to their prayerful efforts and their 
fervent, importunate pleadings with God. This 
faith, with its corresponding works, soon bears fruit 
in their children. The fruit is made manifest in 
their early conversion to God and membership in 
the Church of Christ. And afterward, in their 
holy lives, the fruit becomes more luscious and 
abundant. Such children enjoy the esteem and 
confidence of all who know them, and, above all, 
they are beloved and honored of God. Such par- 
ents and children constitute a household of faith 
and of good works, having the protection and bless- 
ing of God upon it, and the light of his countenance 
shining in the midst of them. As a family and as 
individuals they are happy and useful. As good 
citizens they are honored and beloved by all, and 



122 The Great Evil and Its Remedy. 

as Christians they are the most worthy and the 
brightest lights in the Church of God, Therefore, 
beloved Christian parents, " be ye steadfast, unrnov- 
able, always abounding in the work of the Lord, 
forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in 
vain in the Lord." 

But there comes a day of solicitude and of great 
anxiety to this religious family which I have so 
truthfully and yet so imperfectly represented. The 
eldest son is sick nigh unto death. The family and 
the consulting physicians do all they can, but the 
dear child grows worse. Medical science and skill 
are exhausted, and the j^atient must die. The par- 
ents are almost heart-broken, but can bring no re- 
lief to the dying child. He has come to the mar- 
gin of the river, and is ready to cross over. Loving 
hearts and willing hands can do nothing more, His 
only help now is in God. The sad duty devolves 
upon the father to reveal to his noble, manly son 
the fact that the time of his departure is at hand. 
With a choked utterance and a trembling voice he 
says: "William, my son, the physicians tell me 
that the last hope is gone, and that you must die." 
The young man is neither startled nor affrighted, 
but remains calm, peaceful, and self-possessed. You 
hear no shriek of despair, of wailing, or of lamen- 
tation, as in the case of the dying sinner. His faith 
abides in God, and he is unmoved by fear. In the 



The Pressing Inquiry. 123 

fact of an indwelling Christ and the conscious hope 
of glory he stands secure, having the victory over 
death, hell, and the grave. Turning to his aged 
father, I hear him say : " Father, I thank you for 
bringing me up ' in the nurture and admonition of 
the Lord.' Much of what I am I owe to you, 
through riches of grace in Christ Jesus. Yes, to 
you, to your love and authority, to your Christian 
character and life, I am consciously and largely 
indebted for present salvation and for the hope of 
heaven. I go across the river just a little in ad* 
vance of you. Boon we shall meet in our Father's 
house above. Good-by, father, until we meet on 
Uhe other and the bright shore.' " Close by stands 
the loving, ever-watchful mother, her eyes all suf- 
fused with tears* Looking up into her anxious face, 
the youth exclaims : " O my precious mother ! I 
can never forget your love and tenderness to me. 
Thank God, dear mother, for your love, In power 
and sweetness and in holy joy it stands next to the 
infinite love and mercy of God* To me it is a well 
of life, even in the dying hour. Among my first 
recollections of you, precious mother, are those con- 
nected with closet religion, with the fear and wor- 
ship of the only living and true God. It w T as you 
who first taught me to love God and to keep his 
holy commandments, and that Jesus Christ died to 
save sinners, and that I should put my trust in him 



124 The Great Evil and lis Remedy. 

as my personal Saviour. It was you who taught 
me to say: ' Our Father who art in heaven.' From 
you I learned to lisp in prayer and in song the 
name of JesUs. Your labor in the Lord has not 
been in vain. God has heard and answered your 
prayers and bottled up your tears. Death comes 
and separates us, but the separation shall not be 
forever, It is the Master who calleth me, and I 
must go. The promised land of Canaan lying just 
beyond the Jordan is full in view, and the angels 
are beckoning me to come. Do not weep for me, 
mother, but meet me in heaven." The mother em- 
braces her dying child, baptizing him with her 
tears, and says : " Yes, my son, your mother will 
meet you in heaven." And now he calls for his 
brothers and sisters, and gives to them his parting 
blessing, kissing them each an affectionate adieu 
until they meet where parting shall be no more. 
All the relatives, friends, and neighbors present 
receive from the dying young man his benedictions 
of love. He gives to each one, according to his or 
her condition and necessities, words of comfort, of 
advice, of warning, and of good cheer. "And now," 
he says, "as I am called to die: 

" sing to me of heaven, 

Sing songs of holy ecstasy, 

To waft my soul on high." 

And while they sing his disembodied spirit, 



TJie Pressing Inquiry. 125 

plumed for its flight and accompanied by a convoy 
of angels, soars up to glory and to God, 

Sweeping through the gates of the new Jerusalem, 

Washed in the blood of the Lamb. 
And thus, one after another, parents and children 
cross over the Jordan and are gathered to their 
homes with the redeemed and blood-washed in 
heaven. An unbroken family in heaven ! Father, 
mother, and all the children — delightful thought! 
O joyous anticipation! Yes, there will be, beyond 
any doubt, hundreds and thousands of unbroken 
families in heaven. I believe that my father's fam- 
ily will be among the happy number. My parents, 
two infant brothers, and three sisters, each of whom 
died in the faith, I doubt not, are already there. 
Two sisters still living are on the way, and they 
shall conquer through the blood of the Lamb the 
last enemy. I anticipate for them an abundant ad- 
mission into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord 
and Saviour Jesus Christ. They have, in com- 
mon with all Christians, "an inheritance incorrupt- 
ible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away." 
" When Christ, who is our life, shall appear," then 
shall they also, I doubt not, appear with him in 
glory. And I can say with the Apostle Paul: 
" Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehend- 
ed : but this one thing I do, forgetting those things 
which are behind, and reaching forth unto those 



126 The Great Evil and Its Remedy. 

things which are before, I press toward the mark 
for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ 
Jesus." I am " ready, waiting, watching for the 
coming of the Bridegroom." "Hallelujah! praise 
ye the Lord ! " " Blessed are they that do his com- 
mandments, that they may have right to the tree of 
life, and may enter in through the gates into the 
city." 

And when at last you reach yon coast, 
O'er life's rough ocean driven, 

May you rejoice no wanderer lost, 
A family saved in heaven ! 



PART THIRD 



MISCELLANEOUS. 

" Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the 
sin of the world ! " (John i. 29.) 

"As by the offense of one judgment came upon all 

men to condemnation ; even so by the righteousness of 

one the free gift came upon all men unto justification 

of life." (Rom. v. 18.) 

(127) 



CHAPTER I. 

The Possibilities to Children. 

The children of Christian parents have rights 
and possibilities which are truly wonderful. From 
their birth they are citizens of the kingdom of God. 
They are not " strangers and foreigners, but fellow- 
citizens with the saints, and of the household of 
God." Christ says : " Suffer the little children to 
come unto me, and forbid them not; for of such is 
the kingdom of God." Again the Master declares 
that little children are the "greatest in the king- 
dom of heaven," and in the same connection : " Ex- 
cept ye be converted, and become as little children, 
ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." 
Little children are charter members in the Church 
of God, the model to all others, and the greatest in 
the kingdom. " Whosoever shall not receive the 
kingdom of God as a little child shall in nowise 
enter therein." Note the fact that little children 
are the pattern to adult believers. All this is most 
wonderful and gracious, and shows the wisdom and 
goodness of God to our fallen race. 

This is neither a denial nor a contradiction of the 
doctrine of depravity. All children born into the 
9 (129) 



130 The Great Evil and Its Remedy. 

world have a corrupt nature, and need to be re- 
generated and born of God. By nature they are 
"inclined to evil, ami that continually." In a lost 
condition, the Son of God has died to redeem and 
save them. " Behold the Lamb of God, which 
taketh away the sin of the world ! " This is the hope 
of our children. They need the atonement of Christ, 
and are saved through his shed blood. Hoav? 
when? Not being personal sinners, but only cor- 
rupt in their nature, they are passive in the bene- 
fits of the atonement. They are saved in virtue of 
what Christ has done for them. Salvation is the 
work of a moment, the work of God ; and the mo- 
ment they need salvation that moment they re- 
ceive it. 

When a child is born into the world its defiled 
body is washed and clothed in the clean, white lin- 
en, prepared in advance; and as we look upon the 
babe we say, "What an innocent, sweet child!" 
and so it is. This symbolizes the moral defilement 
of the child and " the washing of regeneration, and 
renewing of the Holy Ghost" in its personal salva- 
tion. It is clothed in white raiment, " washed and 
made white in the blood of the Lamb." This is 
the work of the Spirit and grace of God, and cer- 
tainly never comes later than the outward washing. 
Why should the body of an infant child be cleansed, 
and the impurities of its spiritual nature not be 



The Possibilities to Children. 131 

purged away? Who will answer ? To suppose any 
delay in the work of moral cleansing would be dis- 
honoring to God, and contrary to the teachings of 
the Bible, to reason, and the fitness of things. This 
would make God less wise and good than man, who 
washes his child and makes it clean, while God 
leaves the soul of the helpless infant in its moral 
pollution and uncleanness. 

Children receive the benefits of the atonement in 
personal salvation at the time of their birth, and 
not, as some have supposed, on the event of their 
death. It is as necessary and as much to God's 
glory that a child should be morally pure as an 
adult person; and God has provided for their 
cleansing, and they are clean. This is evidenced 
in the fact that adult believers must come into the 
moral state of little children in order to be saved. 
They are the model. 

If children are citizens of the kingdom of God, 
if they constitute a part of the family of God, 
and are consequently " heirs of God, and joint 
heirs with Christ," the fact ought to be known and 
acknowledged. Infant baptism is an acknowl- 
edgment of this fact. To this end and for this 
purpose was the sacrament of baptism ordained. 
By this divinely-appointed method God speaks 
to the world in recognition of little children as 
members of his household. This is the mark 



The Great Evil and Its Remedy. 



which God puts alike upon infants and adults, by 
which they are known as his " peculiar people." 
The devil has no right of property in those who 
are sealed as "the servants of God in their fore- 
heads." This answers in part at least the question : 
" What good does it do to baptize an unconscious 
babe? " It is putting God's seal of recognition and 
approval upon " these little ones who believe in 
Christ," and who are saved through his atoning 
blood. Infant children are said to believe in Christ, 
because they are in the same moral state with adult 
believers. This entitles them to the right of bap- 
tism, to all its privileges and benefits. The family 
of God, on earth and in heaven, is composed largely 
of infants and little children. They belong to God's 
covenanted people, and baptism is the sign and seal 
of that covenant. The world is no place for chil- 
dren ; their place is in the Church of God. Children 
should not serve the devil and sin, going in the 
ways of unrighteousness; no, not for a day or hour. 
They should be the servants, as they are the chil- 
dren of God, loving him with all the heart, and 
walking in the way of his commandments all their 
days. 

But is this possible? Can a child saved by " the 
washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy 
Ghost " cross the line of accountability and contin- 
ue to the end of life in this saved state? In other 



The Possibilities to Children. 



Avoids, is it possible not to forfeit our infantile jus- 
tification? May a child begin, continue, and end 
his earthly life in the Church and service of God, 
so that Satan shall have no part or lot in him, so 
that he may truthfully say in old age : " I have 
loved and served God all my days?" The Bible 
and the gospel answer these questions in the af- 
firmative. Reason joins her testimony with theirs, 
and the fact is established without further witness. 
Others, if necessary, could be produced. There are 
at least a few examples on record to confirm and 
establish us in this faith. 

Take this instance: A child is born of relig- 
ious parents, is dedicated to God by baptism in 
infancy, and afterward trained up in the way he 
should go — brought up in the nurture and admo- 
nition of the Lord. With persistency the mother 
cares for her child as one who must give account to 
God, daily praying with him in the closet, and in- 
structing him in the science of morality and relig- 
ion. Twice every day— morning and evening — he 
is found with his parents worshiping God at the 
family altar. Here, from time to time, he is more 
perfectly instructed in the things of God, and more 
fully consecrated to his service. He invariably 
goes with his parents to preaching and to the 
Sunday-school. He evidently loves the house and 
the worship of God. It is soon apparent that the 



134 The Great Evil and Its Remedy. 

gospel is to him the most precious and beneficial 
of all the means of grace. He is in his pew to 
hear the sermon, and to remember and profit by- 
it. He is honest, truthful, and obedient to his par- 
ents. It is his delight " to do justly, and to love 
mercy, and to walk humbly with his God." The 
Bible is his principal book — never reading novels 
and trashy literature. From a child to old age 
he was never on any account either in a drinking 
or dancing saloon, never played a game of cards, 
and, except marbles when a boy, no other game 
of chance; with one exception each, was never 
in a theater or circus. These exceptions he re- 
grets as blunders in his life. He never used to- 
bacco in any form, nor whisky or other intoxi- 
cants as a beverage. In his fourteenth year he 
made a public profession of religion, ratifying the 
vows of baptism which had been upon him from an 
infant. He claims, however, that he did as truly 
love and serve God before this event as he ever did 
afterward. These facts are recorded here to show 
the grand possibilities to children of Christian par- 
ents when properly trained. What the parents did 
for this child other parents may do for their chil- 
dren. 

This I know is impossible to an unbeliever; but 
faith in God and a diligent use of the means of 
grace will accomplish the work. The devil will 



The Possibilities to Children. 135 

teach you a different doctrine. Believe him not, 
"because there is no truth in him." He is a liar 
and the father of lies. Be not ignorant of his de- 
vices, for he would deceive, if it were possible, the 
very elect. 

I am glad to be able to say in this connection 
that the devil never had my affections, money, time, 
talents, or opportunities. These, with my whole 
being and possessions, are now and ever have been 
the Lord's. I have no recollection of the time that 
I did not love and serve God. Never for a single 
day did I of set purpose and wickedly turn away 
from his holy commandments to serve the devil. 
If this be boasting, it is only to magnify the wis- 
dom and grace of God, and to show what pious 
parents may accomplish by the help of God. I 
owe all to my parents. But the reader asks : " How 
about your own children? Have you succeeded in 
bringing them up for God and heaven? " Header, 
what is that to you? Any failure of mine along 
this line could not change the truth of God into a 
lie. But I will answer your question by asking an- 
other. " What do you think of Ethel, my young- 
est grandchild, now four years old ? " A few days 
ago, when she and I were in the sitting-room alone, 
she climbed on my knee and said: "Grandpa, who 
do you think I love best ? " Thinking that she had 
reference to her grandma and myself, I answered : 



136 The Great Evil and Its Remedy. 

" O you love grandpa best, do you not ? " She 
threw her little arms around my neck, and putting 
her mouth close to my ear said : " ISo, grandpa ; I 
love God best." And I can safely record as much 
for each one of my grandchildren. And why should 
not a child love God best ? We do know that many 
of them do, and many more would with the proper 
training. 

The grandfather of Rev. Bam P. Jones has a fam- 
ily of forty-two children, grandchildren, and great- 
grandchildren. Half the number, it is believed, are 
in heaven ; the other half are on the way. Some of 
them lived for a time in sin, but they are all now in 
the service of God, striving to enter into eternal 
life. This is a good showing for the Christian re- 
ligion. Such a record ought to encourage even the 
faint-hearted to an active faith and obedience in 
doing the commandments of God. lam persuaded 
that there is a larger number of such families than 
is generally believed. But they ought to be, and 
are being, largely multiplied. 



CHAPTER II. 

Obedience in Children. 

Obedience in children to parental authority is 
commanded of God. This is the first and princi- 
pal thing in family government. It is reasonable 
and right, just and good. What God demands is 
always best. 

The authority of parents, however, can only ex- 
press the will of God ; they dare not go beyond the 
divine will in any thing. They are in the stead of 
God to their children. The father is pre-eminently 
the prophet, priest, and king of his household. The 
authority is not an iron rule, brute force gov- 
ernment, but that of a kind, tender-hearted, and af- 
fectionate father, ruling in wisdom and righteous- 
ness — a father ready, if need be, to die for his 
children. Aud so the obedience is not a forced 
obedience, or submission to an arbitrary pow T er, but 
a ready, cheerful, active, loving obedience to a wise 
ruler, and one that is just and good. Loyalty to a 
government such as this is in the interests alike of 
parents and children. Only on this basis rests, or 
can rest, permanent peace and prosperity to the 
household. To the children there are duties, re- 

(137) 



138 The Great Evil and Its Remedy. 

straints, and servitude, but no complaint or dissat- 
isfaction. Loyalty in children to parental author- 
ity is the essence and highest expression of morality 
cf which they are capable, and the first budding 
in them of a Christian character and life. The op- 
posite of all this is true of disobedience. It is trea- 
son against God and man. And parents who al- 
low disobedience are more guilty than their rebel- 
lious children. This may seem a hard saying in 
the face of the fact that many children will do as 
they please in spite of their parents — even in defi- 
ance at times of their authority. In this case the 
obedience in the children is lost by neglect of duty 
on the part of parents; or, possibly for the same 
reason, was never secured. Successful parental au- 
thority and good family government are not hid- 
den mysteries, but an open secret, which may be 
read and known of all men. The will of the par- 
ent must be expressed and obeyed from infancy, 
through childhood and youth, up to manhood and 
womanhood. If infancy is allowed to have its own 
way, childhood and youth will be hard to conquer. 
If childhood and youth are not conquered, young 
manhood and womanhood will do as they please. 
In this way disobedience is established, and God's 
order in the family reversed. All are agreed that 
it is right for children to obey their parents, but 
many hold that the infant is not capable of obedi- 



Obedience in Children. 139 

ence. This is a fatal mistake and the source of the 
greatest mischief in after life. All manner of evil 
and wroug-doing flow from this fountain, until the 
swelling stream becomes deep and wide in its vio- 
lence, and destructive of all that is sacred and good 
in the home circle. The will of the infant child is 
made manifest from its birth, and from the begin- 
ning must be kept in subjection to parental au- 
thority. The child Jesus was subject to his parents, 
and has left an example to all other children. This 
is not only a worthy example to our children, but 
it is absolutely necessary that they should follow it. 
The holy precepts of the gospel and the holy exam- 
ple of Jesus upon this subject leave all without 
excuse. 

By crying or otherwise the youngest child can. 
make its wants known, and if they are reasonable 
they should be granted, but if wrong denied. To 
do a thing which is wrong simply to please the 
child and hush its crying is a common weakness to 
many mothers, and the sin of some fathers. This 
is sowing to the flesh, and they that thus sow to the 
flesh " shall of the flesh reap corruption." All 
such parents in after years are surprised, grieved, 
and mortified in the disobedience and sinful con- 
duct of their children ; but the harvest is from the 
seed of their own sowing. Obedience in children 
is the way to life, peace, and happiness ; but diso- 



140 The Great Evil and Its Remedy. 

bedience brings wretchedness, misery, and death. 
Children who are obedient to their parents will 
submit to any rightfully-constituted authority, 
whether it be divine or human. They are loyal 
alike to God and man. But the self-willed child 
in the home is a disloyal subject to civil govern- 
ment and a rebel against all moral restraints and 
divine authority. Put no restraints on infancy, 
and let childhood and youth have their own way, 
and you will soon have a country full of bad citi- 
zens, and the Church overrun with unworthy and 
unruly members. So, likewise, in these facts par- 
ents and others may find the reason why the word 
of God and the gospel so often seemingly fail in 
their mission of saving souls. It is easy to win 
souls to Christ where child-obedience dominates 
the heart and life. This is, indeed, in itself a serv- 
ice to God, and a recognized obedience to the gos- 
pel. Parents themselves must be loyal to God 
if they would have obedience in their children. 
The great work and chief delight of the devil is to 
secure disobedience to God, both in parents and in 
their children. We must stand between our chil- 
dren and his Satanic majesty by instilling into their 
minds and hearts the principles and practice of 
obedience, duty, and servitude. The safety of all 
children is in serving with fidelity their parents, 
as the word of God directs. " Children, obey your 



Obedience in Children. 141 

parents in the Lord ; for this right. Honor thy father 
and mother; which is the first commandment with 
promise; that it may he well with thee, and thou 
mayest live long on the earth." 

The failure of children in these things is most 
generally chargeable to their parents. Both the di- 
vine and civil government hold parents responsible 
for the conduct of their children. It is their special 
and sacred work to mold the character and shape 
the lives and destiny of their offspring. They are 
the proper and divinely-appointed agents in sup- 
plying their physical, intellectual, and moral wants 
— directing them in the way of happiness in this 
life and to glory and a blessed immortality in the 
life which is to come. Thus far all are agreed, and 
we have no controversy. 

But as to the nature and extent of this responsi- 
bility men differ, and differ widely. On this sub- 
ject I have strong convictions, a large faith, and a 
comfortable experience. I am responsible for my 
children in the sense and to the degree that if they 
do wrong I take the blame, and if they do right I 
claim the credit. I speak of minors subject to the 
will of the parents. Properly trained in childhood 
and youth, they are secure in after life. A child 
trained in the way he should go, when he is old will 
not depart from it. Take this illustration: Say I 
have a son who becomes a drunkard, either before 



142 Tlie Great Evil and Its Remedy. 

or after he reaches his majority. In that fact is 
found the evidence that the boy has not been trained 
in the way he should go. I am charged with that 
training, and am the guilty party. This is the Bi- 
ble standard of responsibility to all parents. I ad- 
mit that with many parents this is an impossibility, 
but only because they are not what they ought to 
be. Non-professors, mere nominal Christians, and 
hypocrites in the Church fail, of course, in meeting 
parental obligations. But they are doubly guilty 
because they have not qualified and put themselves 
in the condition to do the work that God requires 
of them. Parents truly and consistently pious, and 
who intelligently and scripturally bring up their 
children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord 
need have no fears. I thank God for such parents 
and such training. If all the children in this coun- 
try of my age and under had been trained as I was, 
the national disgrace of drunkenness had not been 
known in these United States. And we might pred- 
icate the same of many other individual and nation- 
al sins that disgrace us to-day. What was possible 
to my parents was possible to all other parents of 
their day and since, except for the reason above 
given, involving them in the neglect of personal and 
relative duties. And because of this neglect their 
children have been sinners instead of saints, as they 
otherwise would have been. And these sinners 



Obedience in Children. 143 

have corrupted the land, bo that to-day the whole 
country is flooded with crimes against God and 
man. Yes, the guilty parties are those whose moral 
and religious training was neglected by their un- 
godly or misguided parents. Criminals, wherever 
found, are an evidence that parents have neglected 
the work that God has given them to do. The root 
of meanness in the man is found in the disobedience 
of the child. And parents who fail to control their 
children are responsible for all the mischief that 
comes of their disobedience. This, however, doe& 
not relieve others of responsibility. If I neglect 
my boy, and others take advantage of this wrong in 
me to make him a drunkard, God will hold them 
responsible as well as myself. 

These questions and interests call for the divine 
sympathy and solicitude. I hear the voice of God 
from heaven saying: "O that there were such a 
heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep 
all my commandments alw T ays, that it might be well 
with them, and with their children forever ! " Surely 
this concern of God for us and our children ought 
to awaken in us the liveliest interests in our own 
souls and in the souls of our children. O how 
anxious and pathetic our heavenly Father is! He 
would lead us and ours to " glory, honor, immor- 
tality, and eternal life." that w T e might all heed 
his loving words! 



CHAPTER III. 
The Sunday Lock and Key. 

Nearly fifty years ago a pious family moved 
from Blount County, East Tennessee, to Missouri, 
locating in Montgomery County, fourteen miles 
north-east of Danville, the county seat. The loca- 
tion was a desirable one, on North Bear Creek. At 
that time the country was new and sparsely settled. 
Here and there was to be found a professor of re- 
ligion. The heads of a few families were Church- 
members, but the majority were of the world. It 
was a rare occurrence to hear a sermon, and espe- 
cially on the Sabbath. Other public and social 
helps in the Christian life were irregular, few, and 
far between. There were a few exemplary, worthy 
Christians, but more or less irregularity was seen in 
the character and lives of many of those who were 
in the Church. There was a general laxity in the 
observance of the Christian Sabbath. The day was 
desecrated by hunting, fishing, sporting, visiting 
from house to house, talking of the weather, crops, 
politics, and secular and worldly matters generally. 

This was a new order of things to the family I 
have mentioned. The customs of the new country 
(144) 



The Sunday Lock and Key. 145 

seemed to them in credible and all wrong. They 
had been accustomed to a stated ministry and to 
established and consistent religious habits. 

The Sabbath to them was a day of rest from 
worldly pleasure and secular business. On this 
holy day they had been accustomed to go regularly 
to the courts of the Lord's house. With the Psalm- 
ist they could say: " For a day in thy courts is bet- 
ter than a thousand. I had rather be a door-keeper 
in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents 
of wickedness.' , But cut off from the holy convo- 
cations of the sanctuary, they observed the day 
as a Sabbath of rest in their dwelling. This to 
them on the Lord's-day was God's house, and must 
be kept sacred. They were annoyed and grieved 
when the neighbors would break in on their Sun- 
day reading, meditations, prayer, and other holy du- 
ties and pleasures. This was beyond endurance, 
as their neighbors soon discovered. Like Daniel, 
true to their God, their principles, and their con- 
victions of right, they would neither visit nor re- 
ceive social visits on the Lord's-day. This surprised 
all the neighbors, and to some for a time it gave of- 
fense. In their fidelity and zeal for God they found 
opposition, as it is written : " Yea, and all that will 
live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." 
Some went so far as to call them " Pharisees," " Pu- 
ritans," "overmuch righteous;" "come not near to 
10 



14G The Great Evil and Its Remedy. 

us, for we are holier than thou." But in spite of 
all this they commanded the respect and confidence 
of the better class of citizens and Christians in the 
community. And because these parents would not 
allow their children to enter into the common sports 
and desecrations of the holy Sabbath, the report 
went out that they were kept under lock and key 
on the Lord's-day. This was not literally though 
it was virtually true. And let the fact be repeated 
and perpetuated to their memory and honor in the 
earth, as it doubtless is and shall forever be to their 
praise in heaven. Here is an example worthy of 
imitation by all parents. A discipline less restrict- 
ive and a piety less pronounced than this will bring 
trouble and sorrow to the parents and ruinous con- 
sequences to the rising generation. 

Much of the wickedness and demoralization which 
abound in the country to-day come, directly or in- 
directly, from Sabbath-breaking. There is no more 
certain way to ruin and to death for the rising 
generation than a loose rein on Sunday. Judging 
parents by this standard, many of them seem eager, 
in some instances even greedy, for the destruction of 
their children. This Sabbath question is a leading, 
vital issue of the day, and the only hope is in the 
children. If the children are not brought up in its 
proper observance, the day is lost. It is next to 
impossible to reform a man of any evil habit or 



The Sunday Lock and Key. 147 

wrong-doing who is an habitual Sabbath-breaker. 
The children! The children! Parents and the 
Church must look to the children. If others neg- 
lect their children, that is no excuse for me. I see 
swarms of children in open violation of the law of 
the Sabbath. They are full of glee and sports and 
merriment. They are absent from the house and 
worship of God, and in the midst of all manner of 
vice and dissipation. Week after week I see them 
going from bad to worse. My children would 
be delighted (I will suppose) to join them; but 
shall I let them do wrong for this reason? God 
forbid ! If my neighbors' children, in their disobe- 
dience to God, go down to death and hell, will that 
make the perdition of the ungodly more tolerable 
to my children who have followed their example? 
The question for parents to settle is not what is 
custom and fashionable, nor what is pleasing to our 
children and to others, nor yet again what sinful 
society and the carnal nature may demand. No, 
no, nothing of that sort, but what is right and what 
will God approve, and what is best, and what will 
secure the most permanent good here and eternal 
happiness hereafter. Reader, I am the child of 
those Puritan parents. Despised and persecuted as 
they were, I am not ashamed of them. One thing 
I do know: their children were only the better for 
"The Sunday Lock and Key." 



CHAPTER IV. 

The Apron-string of Mothers/ 

Not the real string that supports the apron, keep- 
ing it in place. With this I have nothing to do. 
Mothers themselves must determine the length, 
strength, and durability of this necessary and use- 
ful instrument. It is the figurative apron-string 
that is in our thought, and about which we would 
write — the string to which all children are tied, or 
should be, to the good mothers of this world. This 
string is the symbol of the mother's love, authority, 
and power. She binds, and no one can unloose; she 
speaks, and it is the business of the child to hear 
and obey. Her word is the law, the rule of action 
to her child. The apron-string supports the child, 
binding him to his place. He is thus made or- 
namental and useful to his mother, and of good 
service to his generation. Such children, in child- 
hood, in youth, and in manhood and womanhood, 
are the pride and crowning glory of their parents. 
In morality and virtue they shine as stars of the 
first magnitude. They shine with increasing luster 
in the home, in the Church, and in the community. 
And so likewise they excel in politeness and good 
(148) 



The Aprowdring of Mothers, 149 

breeding, and in whatever eke that is lovely, praise- 
worthy, and of good report* They are models in 
piety, honesty, sobriety, and industry, in justice, 
equity, and righteousness, and in all things which 
are true and pure and good. Their loyalty to 
civil government and their fidelity to God and 
the Church are never questioned. In the social 
and business circles of life they have the pre-em- 
inence. In these and other places they are the 
centers of attraction and of admiration to all those 
who can appreciate the true and the good. Such 
children always live right and die well; and we 
believe that in the world to come the angels will 
delight to do them honor; and, best of all, God will 
recognize them as his sons and daughters, " worthy 
and well qualified " to live with the saints and an- 
gels forever* All this is truly predicated of the 
apron-string of the good mothers of earth. We in- 
clude the pious father with the godly mother; thev 
are one in responsibility, in authority, and in pow- 
er ; one in the work of educating and training their 
children. They are the salt and light of the world* 
God bless the good fathers and mothers of earth, 
for they shall " shine as the stars forever and ever." 
They are worthy to be crowned with a royal dia- 
dem, for "they are kings and priests unto God." 

The apron-string of mothers has in it the possi- 
bilities of incalculable good, Mothers, if you get 



150 TJie Great Evil and lU Remedy. 

tired; grow weary aiid faint at times, do not become 
discouraged and give up, for in due season " ye 
shall reap, if ye faint not," But you must have 
the help of God — all is vain without the divine 
guidance and blessing. Be careful not to overlook 
this fact, and pray unto God mightily and without 
ceasing. Watch as well as pray, and fast if need 
be; and be diligent and earnest in your work, and 
continue therein " with all perseverance and sup* 
plication," and mercy and grace will abound unto 
you, and your work and labor of love will be a 
success* 

But a discouraged mother says: "I had a good 
boy, but his wicked associates have led him astray. 
They jeered and laughed, and persecuted him, un* 
til he grew ashamed of his mother's apron-string. 
I am afraid my boy is ruined forever?" Indeed! 
Bad company has ruined your boy! And pray 
what right had your boy to go into bad company? 
The apron-string, properly used, keeps the children 
in security against all such dangers. The safety of 
your children is in keeping them in good society. 
This is a delicate and difficult work, I will admit, 
but it is not an impossibility. 

There are right principles and good associations 
among the children and the youth of any given 
community, as well as among the grown people. 
If Ave did not have the former, we could not have 



The Apron-string of Mothers. 151 

the latter. It is then not necessary that the chil- 
dren of any given parents should go into bad com- 
pany, so as to be demoralized by it. There is a 
better way and a better place for them. Keep them 
in the good company that God has provided for 
them. T Iurtful company must be avoided. Better 
never go into society than to be denied by it. 

In every community in this Christian land of 
ours are to be found boys and girls in their teens 
and younger, whose characters and lives are known 
to be wicked. But good children need not be par- 
takers with them of their evil deeds nor necessarily 
led astray by them. The rotten apron-string will 
account for much of what is wrong in the children. 
Many parents locate the cause and occasion of sin, 
and its consequent evils in their children, too far 
from home. Children are a sacred trust that must 
be sacredly guarded, and one of the principal pa- 
vilions of safety to them is the apron-string of a 
good mother. 



CHAPTER V. 

On Joiningthe Church When Young. 

Children old enough to go to the day-school 
are old enough to enter the school of Christ, and 
that means membership in the Church of God. The 
fold is the place for the flock of sheep, and that in- 
cludes the lambs. And so there are children in the 
flock of the Good Shepherd. And the lambs of 
the flock have the same care aud protection as the 
' sheep. 

The Master said to Peter : " Feed my lambs." 
Again he said : " Feed my sheep." Then, including 
the entire flock of sheep and lambs, he said : " Feed 
my sheep." There is a significance in this order not 
to be mistaken. Children have a right to a place 
in the Church, and let no one delay or hinder them. 
To close the door against them would be like turn- 
ing the lambs out of the fold. 

Christ says: "Suffer the little children to come 
unto me, and forbid them not ; for of such is the king- 
dom of God." Again he says : " Except ye be convert- 
ed, and become as little children, ye shall not enter 
the kingdom of heaven." So it would seem that little 
children are charter members, and the model to 
(152) 



On Joining the Church When Young. 15o 

adult believers* Grown persons may well pattern 
after the simplicity of faith in little children. It is 
marvelous with what confidence they will cling to 
the object of their affectious* And that they may, 
and when properly taught do, love God cannot be 
denied. Instances of this kind are not wanting, 
even in children under five years of age. I am al- 
ways glad to see children, however young, join the 
Church. In every such instance there is joy in the 
presence of the angels of God in heaven ; and shall I 
not rejoice? 

Some thirty years ago a small boy about eleven 
years of age joined the Church at Fayette, Mo. 
He was among the youngest of the sixty converts 
at the meeting, He joined in the quiet of an after- 
noon service as he was returning home from college. 
After the congregation had returned to their homes, 
as is usual on such occasion, the question was asked 
by anxious ones not at the meeting: "Bid any 
one join the Church this afternoon ?" And this I 
imagine was the answer: "No, no one. yes, 
I remember now ; there was a little boy joined — Eu- 
gene B. Hendrix." The answer was given in such 
way as to indicate clearly that but little impor- 
tance was attached to the event. It was only a 
child, and at the time the Church and community 
thought but little about it. 

But what of the child since? He has grown to 



15.4 The Great Evil and Its Remedy. 



be a man, and during these years he has also grown 
in the knowledge and love of God. He has attained 
the full stature of a man in Christ Jesus. Like the 
large majority of children who come into the 
Church early, he has made a good record of fidelity 
and usefulness. 

After taking a full college course, including the- 
ology and Biblical literature, he entered the itmer- 
ant ministry, and for years was an active, successful 
worker. Later we find him President of Central 
College, at Payette, Mo., the place of his nativity, 
Here he labored, as he had done in the work of the 
ministry, with great fidelity and efficiency. From 
this important and great work he was called to the 
episcopacy. As a bishop in the Church of God he 
is deservedly popular, as he is abundant in labors 
and usefulness. He is held in high esteem by the 
whole Church for his works' sake. 

It was a wise thing in him to have joined the 
Church when but a youth, and it is the part of 
wisdom in other children to follow his example. 
Only a few persons in a generation can hope to at- 
tain to the eminence he has reached, but all will be 
the better by joining the Church and leading a re- 
ligious life while young. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Moral and Legal Rights. 

In a Christian land moral and legal rights are 
supposed to harmonize. That they should ever be 
in conflict seems an absurdity and a contradiction, 
But nothing is more common or more destructive 
of human happinesSj within certain prescribed lim- 
its. To secure the ends of wholesome law and good 
government legal enactments should be based on 
moral rights. This is the only security to person 
or property. Any legal enactment in conflict with 
moral principles is a nullity, and ought to be so 
treated. 

God is alike the author of moral law and civil 
government. " The powers that be are ordained 
of God." But God cannot contradict himself. 
Any legal enactment, therefore, which contradicts 
God and violates moral rights is destructive of the 
peace and welfare of the commonwealth. Making 
things legally right which are morally wrong an- 
tagonizes the moral and civil governments of God. 

The alternative now is to either obey God or 
man, for no one can serve two masters. Individu- 
als and corporate bodies alike are forced to a choice, 

(155) 



156 The Great Evil and lis Remedy. 

They must stand on the one side or the Otter, The 
whisky question, one of the live issues of the day, 
may serve further to illustrate and enforce these 
principles. It is a legal right to sign a petition for 
saloon license, but it is a moral wrong, and the 
parties involved are forced to take sides, It is a 
great moral wrong to sell whisky and other intoxi- 
cants as a beverage, but it is a legal right Judged 
by these facts and principles, saloonists are honora- 
ble, upright men, law-abiding and good citizens \ 
but from a moral stand-point they are the greatest 
of sinners. Strange inconsistency! they stand jus- 
tified of man, but condemned of God, The moral 
government of God is holy, just, and good, and to 
legislate against this government is to destroy the 
foundations both of civil and religious liberty, 
They that do such things are surely blinded by the 
god of this world, and know not what they do; 
and those who countenance, support, and perpetu- 
ate such legislation are the worst enemies to human 
happiness and prosperity. Aside from the Bible 
this statement is supported by every- day facts and 
occurrences, as observed and experienced in human 
life. 

Once more: Bevenues arising from the whisky 
traffic must be collected and disbursed by the prop- 
er officers. This is legally right, but morally wrong. 
Such money is the price of blood, the price of souls, 



Moral and Legal Rights. 157 

aod honest, God fearing men will have nothing to 
do with it. To collect and disburse such a revenue 
is an abomination in the sight of God, and a calam- 
ity and disgrace to any Christian, civilized people. 
The officer is legally innocent, but morally guilty. 
And the guilt is his, not another man's. He can- 
not saddle it on the Government, for he does this 
thing willingly and of choice. Knowing all the 
facts in advance, he can decline the office, or, ac- 
cepting it, he may refuse to obey the legal mandates 
which are in violation of moral rights. Any officer 
or citizen is justified in rebelling against the civil 
authorities if that authority is in violation of mor- 
al rights; but such rebellion must take the con- 
sequence. The full penalty of violated Jaw must 
be inflicted ; the violator of the law must be pun- 
ished. This is the only security to any Govern- 
ment. The case of Daniel is a good illustration of 
this subject. The moral rights of Daniel gave him 
the privilege and made it his duty to pray daily, 
and several times a day, to his God. The civil au- 
thorities forbade his doing so for the spaceof thirty 
days on pain of death. But in violation of the royal 
statute Daniel continued to pray as aforetime, ready 
and willing to take the consequences. For his re- 
bellion he knew full well that he would be cast into 
the den of lions, but he preferred innocence in the 
sisrht of God to the kinc's favor. As between a 



158 The Great Evil and Its Remedy. 

moral right and legal wrong he'did not hesitate to 
choose the right. And his was a wise choice, as 
the sequel shows, and is an example to all good 
men under like circumstances. He gave himself 
into the hands of the proper officer, and was cast 
into the den of lions, whose mouths were locked by 
an angel, so that they hurt him not. So much for 
fidelity to God. The Divine approval and protec- 
tion are always upon those who do right, but the 
wicked are destroyed by their own wickedness. 
Certain and sometimes sudden destruction comes 
upon them, as in the case of Daniel's persecutors. 
They suffered the death they designed to inflict 
upon him. Cast into the den of lions, they were 
devoured ere they reached the bottom of the pit. 
Such is the end of sin, and it is a warning to trans- 
gressors. Let men beware who clamor for legal 
rights against God, moral principles, and religious 
duty. In this country the whisky devil has his 
den of lions, and all who pray to and worship an- 
other God must be cast into it. But we will not 
fear, knowing that in the end deliverance will come 
to the righteous, and that all the wicked shall be 
destroyed from the land. Their doom is already 
sealed, and the executioner stands at the door. 
But there is one hope left — a reprieve of life, lib- 
erty, and happiness to all who will henceforth fear 
God and keep his commandments. 



CHAPTER VII. 

A Pledge to Meet in Heaven. 

The following incident will serve to show the 
importance and some of the benefits of such a 
pledge. After preaching at Camp Branch, War- 
ren County, Mo., and before dismissing the con- 
gregation, I proposed to take the hand of all who 
were willing, as a pledge that we would meet each 
other in heaven. Among those who accepted this 
proposition was a young Christian of more than 
ordinary intelligence and piety. About ten years 
after this she was taken suddenly and dangerously 
ill. The attending physician from the first thought 
her recovery doubtful. Soon all hope was gone, 
and for days her death was expected every hour. 
During this critical period of her illness she had a 
vision, which seemed to her as real as life itself. 
In this vision she seemed to pass through the port- 
als of death, and up the shining way to glory and 
to God. She had reached one of the gates of the 
city on the west side, and was about to enter into 
the New Jerusalem. Looking back to earth for 
the last time, she saw her married sister, at whose 
house she had died, sitting and weeping amidst the 

(159) 



160 The Great Evil and Its Remedy. 



mournful scenes of death. Presently she looked 
up steadfastly toward heaven, as if to catch a 
glimpse of the departed spirit. There was a mo- 
ment of time, and she used that moment to speak 
these memorable and comforting words : " Sister, 
do not weep for me; but do you tell Brother Cope 
that I have kept my pledge, and have safely 
reached my heavenly home." This was only in the 
imagination; but had the death been real, and if 
she could have done so, beyond any doubt she 
would have sent back this exact message. 

I have taken hundreds — I suppose thousands — of 
similar pledges, first and last, and I am confidently 
expecting to meet those Christian friends in heaven, 
and to be refreshed and rest with them under the 
shade of the tree of life. Reader, shall you and I 
meet in heaven ? I say, yes; by the grace of God 
I will meet you there, and we shall dwell together 
in the presence of God and the angels, and all the 
redeemed from earth, forever. If you shall answer, 
" Be it as thou wilt," the covenant is entered into 
between us; and God, who knoweth all hearts, shall 
witness and ratify the solemn vow ; and if we keep 
it, heaven shall be our future and eternal home. 
That means that we shall be perfectly and eternally 
happy. In the language of the Christian poet : 

Here's my heart, and here's my hand, 
To meet you in that happy land. 



